which are turn'd into the substance of Animals whose bodies are again reduc'd into Earth The fifth maintain'd the opinion of Albert the Great who is for the Generation of things which the preceding opinion over throws holding nothing to be new generated He said that Forms are indeed in the Matter yet not entire and perfect but only by halves and begun according to their essence not according to their existence which they acquire by the Agents which educe things out of their causes The Sixth said If it were so then there would be no substantial Generation because Existence is nothing but a Manner of Being adding nothing to Essence nor really distinguish'd from it Wherefore I embrace Aristotle's opinion that Forms are in the Matter but only potentially and as the Matter is capable of them just as Wax is potentially Caesar's Statue because capable of receiving that form This he calls to be drawn and educ'd out of the power or bosom of the Matter which is not to be receiv'd in it or to depend of its dispositions since this belongs also to the Rational soul which is not receiv'd in the body till the previous dispositions necessary for its reception be introduc'd therein but the Matter it self concurrs though in a passive way not only to dispose it self but also to produce the Form and consequently to preserve it Which is not applicable to the Rational soul whose Being depends not anywise upon the Matter The Seventh said Matter being a Principle purely passive and incapable of all action cannot produce any thing much less Forms the noblest Entities in the world 'T is the principle of impotence and imperfection and consequently the ugliness deformity contrary to the Form whereof it should partake if it contain'd the same in power as Wine and Pepper do Heat which becomes actual and sensible when reduc'd into act by our Natural Heat which loosens it from the parts which confin'd it Wherefore Forms come from without namely from Heaven and its noblest part the Sun the Father of Forms which are nothing but Beams of light deriv'd from him as their Fountain whose heat and influences give motion and life which is the abode of Heat in Humidity not Elementary Heat for then Arsenic Sulphur and other Mixts abounding with this Heat should have life but Serpents Salamanders Fishes Hemlock Poppies and other excessively cold Plants and Animals should not Moreover in whatever manner the Elements and their Qualities be mix'd they are still Elements and can produce nothing above their own Nature which is to calefie refrigerate attenuate rarefie condense but not the internal and external senses the various motions and other actions of life which can proceed only from a Celestial Heat such as that is which preserves a Plant amidst the rigours of Winter whose coldness would soon destroy the Plant's heat if it were of the same nature Hence Vegetative and Sensitive Souls having no Contraries because Contraries are plac'd under the same Genus but the Celestial matter whereof these souls are constituted and the Elements are not therefore they are not corruptible after the manner of other Mixts but like light cease to exist upon the cessation of the dispositions which maintain'd them For such is the order of Nature that when a Subject is possest of all the dispositions requisite for introduction of a Form the Author of Nature or according to Plato the Idea or that Soul of the World which Avicenna held to be an Intelligence destinated to the generation of substantial Forms concurrs to the production of the Form as also this concourse ceases when those dispositions are abolisht CONFERENCE CXXIII Whether Lean people are more healthy and long-liv'd then Fat THe Immortality of our souls having an absolute disposition to length of Life it depends only upon that of the Body that we do not live Ages as our first Fathers did For 't is from some defect in these bodies that the differences of life even in Animals and Plants proceed whence some less perfect souls as those of Oaks are yet more long-liv'd then those of Beasts The signs of long and short life are either simply such or also causes and effects Such is the conformation of the parts of our body A great number of Teeth is held a sign of longaevity as well because 't is an effect of the strength of the Formative Faculty and Natural Heat as that thereby the food is better masticated and prepar'd and the other concoctions and functions more perfectly perform'd whence comes health and long life So also the Habit of the body is not simply a sign but likewise an effect of health and cause of long life namely when the same is moderate that is neither fat nor lean which two though comprisable within the latitude of health which admits a a great latitude are yet so much less perfect as they decline from that laudable disposition which is the rule and square of all others Now to make a just comparison we must consider the Fat and the Lean in the same degree of excess or defect from this Mediocrity and compare Philetas the Poet who was so dry and lean that he was fain to fasten leaden soles to his shoos for fear the wind should carry him away with Dionysius of Heraclea who was choakt with fat unless his body were continually beset with Leeches Or else we must observe in both an equality of Vigour in the Principles of Life to wit the Radical Heat and Moisture in the same proportion the same age under the same climate regiment and exercises otherwise the comparison will be unequal and lastly we must distinguish the fleshy great-limb'd and musculous from the fat This premis'd I am of Hippocrates's Opinion Aph. 44. Sect. 2. that such as are gross and fat naturally die sooner then the lean and slender because the Vessels of the latter especially the Veins are larger and consequently fuller of Blood and Spirits which are the Architects and principal Organs of Life on the contrary the Fat have smaller Vessels by reason of their coldness which constringes them as is seen in Women Eunuchs and Children whose voices are therefore more shrill and who have also less health and life The Second said Nature hath furnisht Animals with Fat to the end to preserve them from external injuries and therefore the Lean who are unprovided thereof must be of shorter life for not many besides decrepit old people die of a natural death that is proceeding from causes within whereas most diseases arise from external causes wherewith the Fat are less incommoded especially with cold the sworn enemy of life the smallness of their pores and the fat which environs them excluding all qualities contrary to life and withall hindring the dissipation of the Natural Heat which becomes more vigorous by the confinement just as the Bowels are hotter in Winter because the cold air hinders the efflux of the heat and spirits caus'd in Summer and in lean bodies whose
the presence of his friends than of his Murderer whose spirits are more inwardly retir'd through fear of punishment whereas those of his friends are sent outwards by Anger and desire of Revenge Yea if the Murderer had been wounded before he should rather bleed than the dead because his Blood is more boyling and capable of commotion by the spirits issuing out of the Carkase And had they any Sympathy they could not discover the Murderer for want of sense which they never had for the spirits which are in the Blood scarce deserve that name being purely natural and void of all sense even during life and specifically different from the animal spirits The vital spirits which are a degree above them vanish together with life whence the Arteries that us'd to contain them are empty And those that serve for Sensation cannot remain in a dead Body because they are easily dissipable and need continual reparation whence we see all the senses fail in a swoon because the Heart recruits them not by a continuity of their generation Besides should they remain after death they would be unactive for want of fit dispositions in the Organs Moreover natural causes act necessarily when their object is present but sometime t is known that Murderers have thrust themselves more diligently into the crowd of Spectators than any other persons for avoiding suspition and no such bleeding hath hapned in their presence and that Executioners take Criminals the next day from the Gallows or the Wheel and not a drop of Blood issues from their wounds And why should not a dead Sheep as well fall a bleeding afresh in the presence of the Butcher that kill'd it Or a Man mortally wounded when he that did it is brought unknown into his Chamber For 't is hard to imagine that we have less sense and knowledge whilst life remains than after death that a wounded person must die that he may become sensible In short t is easie to see that this effect is not like other wonders which have a cause in Nature because though we cannot assign the particular causes of these yet they are prov'd by some demonstrative or at least some probable reasons And as for Antipathy it should rather concenter all the dead person's Blood in his Murderer's presence and make it retire to the inward parts Wherefore I conclude that not only the causes of this miracle are not yet found but also that 't is impossible there should be any natural one of it at all The Fourth said That according to the opinion of Avicenna who holds That the Imagination acts even beyond and out of its Subject this faculty may cause the effluxion of Blood the Criminal's Phansie working mightily when the person slain by him is objected before his Eyes And the nitrous vapors arising out of the Earth upon digging up the Body together with the heat of the Air greater than that of the Earth and increas'd by the conflux of Spectators may in some measure contribute to the new fermentation of the Blood But the truth is after all our inquiries this extraordinary motion cannot be better ascrib'd elsewhere than to God's Providence who sometimes performs this miracle for the discovery of Murder which would otherwise be unpunisht but not always And 't is no less impiety to deny that Divine Justice comes sometimes to the aid of that of Men than 't is ignorance and rusticity to be satisfi'd in all cases with universal causes without recurring to particular ones which God employes most ordinarily for the Production of Effects yet does not so tye his power to the necessity of their operations but that he interrupts the same when he pleases even so far as to give clay power to open the Eyes of the blind CONFERENCE CCIII Of the Vnicorn THere are no greater impostures in the Art of Physick than those which relate to Antidotes and Preservatives from Poyson such as the Unicorn's Horn is held to be And I am mistaken if it be not a popular error First because the opinions of all Authors are so contrary concerning it Philostratus in the life of Apollonius saith that the Animal of this name is an Ass and is found in the fenns of Colchis having one single horn in the fore-head where-with he fights furiously against the Elephant Cardan after Pliny saith 't is a Horse as 't is most commonly painted only it hath a Stag's head a Martin's skin a short neck short mane and a cloven hoof and is bred only in the Desarts of Aethiopia amongst the Serpents whose Poyson its horn which is three cubits long resists Garsius ab Horto saith 't is an Amphibious Animal bred on Land near the Cape of good Hope but delighting in the Sea having an Horses head and mane a horn two cubits long which he alone of all Authors affirms to be moveable every way Most agree that it cannot be tam'd and yet Lewis Vartoman saith that he saw two tame ones in Cages at Mecha which had been sent to Sultan Solyman Almost all confess it very rare and yet Marcus Sherer a Renegado German afterwards call'd Idaith Aga and Embassador from the same Solyman to Maximilian the Emperor affirms that he saw whole troops of them in the Desarts of Arabia And Paulus Venetus the same in the Kingdom of Basman where they are almost as big as Elephants having feet like theirs a skin like Camels the head of a Boar and delighting in mire like swine Nor are Authors less various concerning its manner of eating some alledging that being unable to feed on the ground by reason of his horn he lives only on the boughs and fruits of Trees or on what is given him by the hands of Men especially of fair Virgins of whom they say he is amorous though others think it fabulous Some believe that there was once such an Animal but not now the whole race perishing in the Deluge and that the horns we find now for the most part in the earth have been kept there ever since And if there be such variety in the description of this Animal there is no less in the horns which they tell us are those of the Unicorn That at Saint Dennis in France is about seven foot high weighs thirty pound four ounces being wreath'd and terminated in a point from a broad base Yet this is not comparable to that Aelian mentions which was so thick that cups might be made of it That at Strasburg hath some conformity with this of Saint Denis but those of Venice differ from both as that describ'd by Albertus Magnus doth from all For 't is saith he solid like a Hearts horn ten foot high and very large at the base The Swisses have one which was sometimes found on the bank of a River near Bruges two cubits long yellow without white within odorous and apt to take fire That at Rome is but one foot high having been diminish'd by being frequently rasp'd in order to be imploy'd against
that they oblige us to stand upon our guard to order our demeanour well and so to frame our Lives that they may have no hold against us For as Friendship is the Parent of Confidence and Liberty this of Negligence So Enmity begets Diffidence and this Circumspection with a great desire of Virtue and shame of Vice whose turpitude makes us blush more in the presence of an Enemy than of a Friend who being our other Self complies with our humours and inclinations And as Natural Agents are more vigorous in presence of their Contraries whence Fire scorches more in Winter than in Summer so the presence of Enemies redoubles our strength and courage their neighbour-hood obliges us to have always our Arms in our hands and keep good Guard which made Cato declaim against those who raz'd the Cities of Carthage and Numantia both Enemies to Rome The Second said That if a Man be vicious 't is more expedient that he have Enemies than Friends these too easily adhering to his debauches but those withdrawing him from them either by reproaches or by the example of a contrary life If he be virtuous his Enemies make his Virtue shine forth whilst it serves him for a defence and apology against all their accusations and calumnies and he finds it his interest to continue his virtuous Practises that he may still refute them whereas the flatteries and compliances of his Friends insensibly corrupt him Besides seeing a virtuous Man cannot be said absolutely perfect but only to have fewer defects than another his dissembling or flattering Friends sometimes know them not but an Enemy takes notice of them and blazing them abroad gives him warning to correct them Yea it seems a sign of a virtuous Man to have Enemies For besides that Virtue hath been always envy'd and hated and the higher a Man is in merit and dignity above others he hath the more Enemies resemblance of Manners begets Friendship and disparity Enmity and more without comparison are vicious than virtuous But the vicious being unable to love any but those like themselves hate all who follow not their example as the virtuous do not and so have the greatest part of the World against them The Third said That Enmities can produce no good since either Vice or Malice or Ignorance is the cause it not being possible but either he that is hated must be vicious or else they that hate him malicious or ignorant For as Friendship is founded upon and cannot subsist without Virtue so neither can Enmity without the Vice and Malice of him that hates or his that is hated or both together And as the Effects of Amity are Union Concord Security and Peace so those of Enmity are Division Discord Diffidence Suspicion Treachery Hatred and other such Effects noxious not only to a private Person who cannot draw any benefit from what tends only to his ruine as all Hatred doth but also prejudicial to the Publick which is totally destroy'd by Enmity which breaks the bonds of Civil Society On the other side If all were Friends one man would be a God to another as that Ancient said and all men concurring together by mutual help to the accomplishment of one anothers designs there would be no more difficulty in Affairs because no opposition and the World would be nothing but a harmony of favourable Successes Contrarily 't is Enmity makes one man a Woolf to another a Stone of offence and the Daemon of his bad fortune For the benefit of understanding our own Vices by our Enemies reproaches is not to be compar'd to that which we receive from the good counsels of Friends who are better qualifi'd for redressing our imperfections because converse affords the means to know them whereas the rude censures and affronts of an Enemy being never taken in good part cannot any wise contribute to the correction of our Manners A wise and virtuous Man who voluntarily endeavours to practise Virtue in all occurrences finds ways enough to do it without waiting to be constrain'd thereunto by the injuries and censures of Enemies But the vitious will draw nothing from them but fewel to his rancour and revenge without being instructed concerning his faults by the mouth of those whom he utterly disbelieves However we must draw as much profit as we can from our Enemies and 't is the only comfort can be had against Hatred to make use of it as an Antidote against its own Poyson But then as 't would be more expedient to have no Griefs or Poysons than to be at the trouble of finding Anodynes and Counter-poysons so we may be allow'd to derive some remedy from Enmities against their Mischiefs and make as much profit of Vice as 't is possible but 't would be expedient to have neither Enemies nor Vices The Fourth said That Nature subsists only by Contrariety That of the First Qualities is the cause of all the Generations of Mixts in the great World Man's Life lasts only so long as the Natural Heat acts upon the Radical Moisture when their combate is ended he must necessarily die His Understanding hath no better means to obtain Truth than by contrariety of Opinions whereof Identity is as disagreeable to the Mind as 't is to Nature But his Will hath no more powerful Means to attain to Virtue than Resistance which sharpens the Courage and enkindles Resoltion Therefore God has given Man a domestick Enemy the Sensitive Appetite that it being continually at war with the Will might serve to exercise it and render its Victories more glorious the Will as well as the Understanding growing rusty when they want exercising which whets and strengthens them both Hence S. Paul was not heard when he pray'd thrice to be delivered from the importunity of his Enemy God judging it not expedient for his good and having also permitted Heresies in the Church which the same Apostle saith are necessary to the end to prove the Faith of its Members CONFERENCE CXIII I. Of the Iris or Rain-bow II. Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instructions 'T Was not without reason that the Poets feign'd Iris to be the Daughter of Thaumas or Thaumasia that is to say of Admiration thereby intimating our not knowing its cause For Wonder is the Off-spring of Ignorance Amongst many other things Three we find to admire in it its Matter Form and Colours It s Matter is not a moist Cloud as most imagine for besides that then we should see Rain-bows more frequently than we do a Cloud cannot reflect the Sun-beams with that variety or medley which we observe therein For there would be but one colour if the Cloud were diaphanous and otherwise it will be black and dark 'T is not therefore in a Cloud that the Rain-bow is form'd but in the falling drops of Rain as we see some Fountains form one in the Air by the ejaculation of the Water struck with the Sun-beams as also by the spurting of Water out
there is such a disproportion in the duration of all States past and present that one hath lasted above 1200. years as the French Monarchy whose flourishing State promises as many more Ages if the World continue so long and another hath chang'd its Form several times in one yeat as Florence Upon which consideration the greatest Politicians have put their States under the Divine Protection and caus'd all their Subjects to venerate some particular Angel or tutelar Saint Thus France acknowledges Saint Michael for its Protector Spain Saint James Venice Saint Mark and even the Ethnicks thought that a City much less a State could not be destroy'd till the Deity presiding over it were remov'd Whence Homer makes the Palladium of Troy carry'd away by Vlysses before the Greeks could become Masters of it The Third said The Supream Cause exercises its Omnipotence in the Rise Conservation and Destruction of States as well as every where else yet hinders not subordinate Causes from producing their certain Effects natural in things natural as in the Life and Death of Men which though one of the most notorious Effects of God's Power and attributed to him by the Scripture and all the World yet ceaseth not to have its infallible and natural demonstrations Inlike manner subordinate Moral Causes produce their Moral and contingent Effects in Moral Things such as that in Question is which Causes depending upon Humane Actions which arise from our Will no-wise necessitated but free cannot be term'd natural and constrain'd unless either by those that subject all things here below to Destiny which subverts the liberty of the Will that is makes it no longer a Will or those who will have not only the manners of the Soul but also the actions always to follow the temperament of the Body which were hard to conceive and yet would not infer a necessity in the alteration of States since the effects of Love and Hatred and other passions which give inclination or aversion are oftentimes prevented by thwarting causes When the Lacedemonians chang'd the popular State of Athens into an Aristocracy of thirty Lords whom they call'd afterwards the thirty Tyrants no other cause can be assign'd thereof but the chance of War which subjected the will of the Athenians to that of the Lacedemonians And the same may be said of all other ancient and modern Revolutions Indeed if the causes in Policy had regular effects or States were subject to natural declinations Prudence which is conversant about contingent things to manage them freely and alter its course according to occasion should signifie nothing 'T is more credible that as in the state of Grace God hath left our actions to the disposal of Free-will that we may work out our Salvation our selves so in the administration of Republicks he hath left most things to chance for imploying men's industry according to their will whose motions being free and contingent are diametrically opposite to the necessity of natural causes The Fourth said That these alterations may be though voluntary yet natural yea necessary too our Will being as inclin'd to apprehended good as our Intellect is to Truth As therefore knowing this truth that 2 and 2 are 4 't is impossible but I must believe it so knowing that such an action will bring me good I shall do it so that the causes of humane actions have somthing of necessity and besides having their foundation in nature may in some sort be term'd natural Moreover since things are preserv'd by their like and destroy'd by their contraries which contraries are under the same genus it follows that all sublunary things having had a natural beginning must also have a like end Desire of self-preservation which is natural gave birth to States but if instead of this desire which renders Servants obedient to their Masters these to the Magistrate and him to the Sovereign Rebellion and Treason deprive their Chiefs of the succour they expect from them and by this means exposes the State in prey to the Enemies it cannot but fall to ruine unless that some other natural cause Perswasion as that of Menenius Agrippa taken from the humane body upon a Secession of the Mechanicks of Rome from the Senate or an exemplary punishment reduce the Subjects to their forsaken duty Whereby it appears that the State resumes its first vigor by as sensible and natural causes as 't is to be perswaded or become wise by others harm Amongst many examples the ruines of Troy and Thebes were caus'd by the rape of Helene whom the injustice of the Trojans deny'd to restore to her Husband and the feud of two Brothers aspiring to the same Royalty then which no causes can be assign'd more natural and more necessarily inferring the loss of a State CONFERENCE CLI Which is more healthful to become warm by the Fire or by Exercise THey who question the necessity of Fire for recalefying our Bodies chill'd by cold the enemy of our natural heat deserve the rude treatment of the ancient Romans to their banish'd persons whom they expell'd no otherwise from their City but by interdicting them the use of Fire and Water knowing that to want either was equally impossible Without Fire our Bodies would be soon depriv'd of life which resides in heat as cold is the effect and sign of death And as Aristotle saith those that deny Vertue would not be otherwise disputed with but by casting them into the fire so would not I otherwise punish those that decry it but by exposing them to freez in mid-winter instead of burning a faggot for them What could little Children and old people do without it For though the natural heat be of another kind then that of our material fire yet this sometimes assists that in such sort that those who digest ill are much comforted by it not to mention weak persons and those that are subject to swoonings Moreover the external cold must be remov'd by an external heat as Fire is which heats only what part and to what degree you please but motion heats all alike As the Sun which some Philosophers take to be the Elemental-fire contributes to the Generation so doth Fire concur to the conservation of Man not by immediate contact but by the heat which it communicates to the Air and the Air to our Body which by approaching or receding from it tempers its excess in discretion and thereby renders it sutable to our natural heat not destroying Bodies but in its highest degree as also the Sun offends those at Noon whom it refreshes at rising and setting The Second said That the violent action of Fire which destroys all sublunary Bodies argues its disproportion with our natural heat which disproportion renders the Stoves and places heated artificially by Fire so noxious and makes such as love the Chimney-corner almost always tender scabby and impatient of the least inclemency of the Air that heat against nature not only destroying the natural but corrupting the humors and exsiccating
which is so far from being rich enough of its self that it borrows from the Greek and Latine to express the most common things and consequently is not sufficient to teach all the Sciences The Second said The French Tongue is deriv'd from the Greek Latine and Gothick which are Languages much more copious then it and therefore they that will recur to originals will find those Tongues more adapted for teaching the Sciences then the French and yet not any single one of them sufficient for it since the Romans to become and deserve the name of Learned were oblig'd to learn Greek Moreover since Books are the chief instruments for attaining the Sciences the ancient Latine and Greek ones which yet were not sufficient for it are much more numerous than the French and by consequence the French Tongue is not capable to teach every Science and had it more Translations then it hath yet these are but small Rivulets deriv'd from that grand Source of Sciences which is found in the original Languages The Third said If we regard the order of times and particularly that of the Creation when all things were in their perfection and purity 't is most likely that that Language which took birth with Adam and all the Sciences is more fit to teach them then the much more Novel French and since there must be a proportion between Instruments and the Matters upon which they act and this proportion is not found between the French Tongue lately invented and the Sciences which are as ancient as the World who can think it sufficient to teach them and the Cabalists hold that the Language fit to teach the Sciences perfectly must have words adapted to signifie the Vertues and Properties of things which ours hath not The Fourth said That all the Language of Adam who gave names suitable to the nature of every thing being lost except the the name of God for that reason so much esteemed by the Jews The Cabalists in imitation of that Tongue invented one whereof I shall give you a taste It hath five Vowels E A V I O which answer to the Elements and the Heaven E to Earth A to the Water V to the Air I to the Fire and O to Heaven E produceth in pronunciation c d f g l m n p r s t z forasmuch as these Consonants cannot be produc'd without it A produceth h and k v produceth q I produceth nothing because pure and single Fire doth not O likewise produceth nothing because the Heaven only moves and excites Generations whereas E produceth abundance of Letters resembling the Earth which produceth every thing in its bosom being the Centre of Heaven and the Matrix of the Elements Now to form words according to the Elementary Qualities they will have the Vowels which compose such a word answer to the Elements which compose such a mixt body And to specifie degrees because the Vowels whereby they are denoted meeting together would spoil the pronunciation therefore they make foure orders of the sixteen Consonants viz. b c d f denote the four degrees of Fire g l m n those of Air p r s t those of Water x z ss st those of Earth Upon this foundation they build the composition of all their Words which they compose of Vowels according to the Elements predominant in things and of Consonants according to their degree But who sees not the absurdity of this invention which by this means would extend only to corporeal mixts whereof the quality and very degree is known Concerning which Naturalists are so far from being agreed that many attribute most natural effects to other causes as to Occult Properties so call'd in opposition to the Elementary 'T is best therefore not to rove from the common tract which teaches us the Sciences by real Languages amongst which those call'd Dead ones to wit the Hebrew Greek and Latine and others now disus'd suffice not for teaching the Sciences because they are not pronounc'd well and the learned agree not about the importance of many Letters and Syllables Besides the most eloquent express not themselves so naturally in those antick obsolete Tongues as in their own And all confess that in order to obtain the perfection of a Science too much plainness cannot be us'd either on the Teacher's part in establishing their Rules and Precepts or on the Learner's in propounding their difficulties for resolution CONFERENCE CLXXXVII Of diversity of Colours in one and the same subject THe diversity of Colours is commonly deduc'd from the mixtion and proportion of the Elements but more truly from the several degrees of Sulphur which produces them as Salt doth Sapors the most certain indications what degree the quality of a Plant is of For if Colours had relation to the Elements then all red things should be hot and white things cold which is not true in Poppy and Roses on the one side nor Orange-flowers and Jasmin on the other So also green things should be always moist because this colour proceeds from an indigested humidity mixt with a part of putrifi'd earth as appears in standing waters and yet the greenness of Lawrel and Mint hinders them not from being hot and dry nor that of Ranunculus from burning But Colours are either natural or artificial which latter as we find it in Stuffs and Silks is neither the cause nor the effect of their temperament But natural colour such as that in the parts of living Animals is an effect of their Life and alterable after their death Wherefore I conclude that colour and its varieties proceeds from the different degrees of Sulphur in the subject but that one and the same subject is of several colours the causes may be First for that some of its parts are more compact others more loose and so differently receive the impression of the Sulphur and the Internal Fire Secondly the Sun shining more upon one part than another draws the internal colour from the Centre to the Circumference as Apples are colour'd on the side next the Sun Thirdly the same difference which is found between the Root Trunk Leavs Flower Fruit and other parts of Plants and Animals is also found in each portion of those parts as the lower part of the Rose is green the middle part whitish and the top red and the Tulip variegated is compounded of as many several particles which variety of places and matrices serves to determine the colour which Sulphur paints thereon being guided by the pencil of Nature The Second said That this diversity of colours proceeds only from the divers aspect of light which varies the colours of certain Bodies to our Eye as in the Rain-bow the Camelion and the necks of Pigeons in things expos'd to the Sun which seem far brighter than before To which you must add the distance and station of the beholders so water seems black or blew afar off but near hand colourless Turpentine Crystal and the whites of Eggs in several situations do the like
ANOTHER COLLECTION OF Philosophical CONFERENCES OF THE French Virtuosi UPON QUESTIONS of all SORTS For the Improving of Natural Knowledg Made in the Assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most Ingenious Persons of that Nation Render'd into English By G. HAVERS Gent. J. DAVIES of Kidwelly Gent. LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring and John Starkey and are to be sold at their Shops at the George in Fleet-street neer Clifford's-Inn and the Mitre between the Middle-Temple-Gate and Temple-bar 1665. IMPRIMATUR Novemb. 20. 1663. WILLIAM MORICE PREFACE THe good Reception a Volume of the like Conferences appears to have found last year by the speedy distribution of the Copies hath given encouragement to the Version and Publication of this wherein I assure my self the Readers will not find themselves worse entertain'd at the second Course then they were at the first the Questions here being proportionably more Philosophical and chosen from such Subjects as are most inquir'd into at this day by the Curious of our own Nation who undoubtedly will find some contentment if not satisfaction in reading what the Virtuosi of our Neighbour-Nation have discours'd touching those Matters I have often heard it spoken to the Commendation of an Eminent Peer in the last Reign That for an hour or two together he made the most agreeable Conversation in the World but if upon parting any one of the Company happened to reflect upon what he had heard he could not remember the least particular passage saving that he had spent such a portion of Time very deliciously 'T was a happy Faculty for the Man for he did his business by it and partly ow'd his Promotion to this Talent I shall pronounce no otherwise upon him but thus That perhaps as Tully said in almost a like case he was a better Gallant than a Wise Man should be At least this way of consuming Time argued a great Disease in Mens Minds when they could be contented to feed upon Air and were so squeamish as not to be able to bear the wholsom Diet of solid Discourse 'T is too apparent that the same Humor is still predominant in these our days wherein Gaming makes the whole Converse amongst the Gentry who like rapacious Animals meet together but to prey upon one another whilst old Stories or News and for want of matter so innocent Detractions Derisions and Abuses are the only things that furnish talk to the Plebeians Thus we live and yet pretend to be Reasonable Creatures whilst true and solid Reason is almost as obscurely discernable in our Commerce as Sense and Motion are in Sponges and Oisters But 't is hop'd the better practice of some Excellent Persons amongst our selves may contribute much to the Reformation of this and to help it forward it cannot but do some good by exciting us to emulation to see what been already done by some Gentlemen of France to whose excellent Wits the World is beholden for these Conferences THE CONTENTS CONFERENCE CI. I. OF Sleep and how long it ought to be II. Which is the strongest thing in the World Page 1 CONFERENCE CII I. Of the Gowt II. Which Condition is most expedient for the acquisition of Wisdom Riches or Poverty 7 CONFERENCE CIII I. Of Glass II. Of Fucusses or Cosmeticks 13 CONFERENCE CIV I. Of Tobacco II. Whether the Invention of Guns hath done more hurt than good 19 CONFERENCE CV I. Of Blood-letting II. Which is the most Excellent of the Soul 's three Faculties Imagination Memory or Judgment 25 CONFERENCE CVI. I. Of Dew II. Whether it be expedient for Women to be Learned 31 CONFERENCE CVII I. Whether it be good to use Chymical Remedies II. Whether the Reading of Romances be profitable 37 CONFERENCE CVIII I. Of Talismans II. Whether a Country-life or a City-life is to be preferr'd 43 CONFERENCE CIX I. Of Volcano's or Subterranean Fires II. Which age is most desirable 49 CONFERENCE CX I. Of Mineral Waters II. Whether it be better to give than to receive p. 55 CONFERENCE CXI I. Of Antidotes II. Which is most communicative Good or Evil. 61 CONFERENCE CXII I. Why Animals cry when they feel Pain II. Whether it be expedient to have Enemies 66 CONFERENCE CXIII I. Of the Iris or Rain-bow II. Whether the Reading of Books is a fitter way for Learning than Vocal Instructions 71 CONFERENCE CXIV I. Of the Milkie-Way II Which is most powerful Gold or Iron 79 CONFERENCE CXV I. Of the cause of Vapours II. Which is less culpable Rashness or Cowardice 85 CONFERENCE CXVI Which Climate is most proper for long-Long-life The second Question is remitted to the next Conference and 't is Resolv'd for divers Reasons that hereafter but one be handled at a time 90 CONFERENCE CXVII Which is most necessary to a State and most noble Physick or Law 93 CONFERENCE CXVIII Of Sea-sickness 96 CONFERENCE CXIX Of Love by Inclination or Sympathy 99 CONFERENCE CXX How the Vnderstanding moves the Will 102 CONFERENCE CXXI Whence come the Marks or Spots wherewith Children are born 107 CONFERENCE CXXII Of the Original of Forms 111 CONFERENCE CXXIII Whether Lean People are more healthy and long-liv'd than Fat 114 CONFERENCE CXXIV Whether we may better trust one whom we have oblig'd or one that hath oblig'd us 117 CONFERENCE CXXV Of the Causes of Freezing and Thawing 119 CONFERENCE CXXVI Of the Causes of the Small Pox. 123 CONFERENCE CXVII Whether we profit best by Precepts or Examples 126 CONFERENCE CXXVIII Of Incubi and Succubae and whether Devils can generate 129 CONFERENCE CXXIX VVhich Animal is happiest according to Nature 132 CONFERENCE CXXX VVhether is better that Men have many VVives or VVomen many Husbands 135 CONFERENCE CXXXI Of the manner of Accretion 138 CONFERENCE CXXXII VVhether the Dinner or Supper ought to be largest 141 CONFERENCE CXXXIII VVhich of the Humane Passions is most excusable 144 CONFERENCE CXXXIV VVhich is the most laudable Temperament 147 CONFERENCE CXXXV Of Happiness and Vnhappiness and whether men are Happy or Vnhappy because they really are so or because they think themselves so 150 CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones 153 CONFERENCE CXXXVII Of the Generation of Metals 156 CONFERENCE CXXXVIII Whether there be an Elementary Fire other than the Sun p. 159 CONFERENCE CXXXIX Which is most desirable long or short Life 162 CONFERENCE CXL Of the Lethargy 165 CONFERENCE CXLI Whether it be better to marry or not to marry 168 CONFERENCE CXLII At what time the Rational Soul is infus'd 171 CONFERENCE CXLIII Of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls 174 CONFERENCE CXLIV Whether there were braver Men in any preceding Age than in the present 177 CONFERENCE CXLV Of the Serene which is a hurtful Dew falling in Summer-Evenings 180 CONFERENCE CXLVI Whether the French are light and inconstant and why 183 CONFERENCE CXLVII Of the sundry Motions of the Sea and Rivers 186 CONFERENCE CXLVIII Whether is better to Love or to be Lov'd 189 CONFERENCE CXLIX Of Hair 192 CONFERENCE
regard no other Creature besides becomes weary in its Operations For all Animals even the lowest degree of Insects sleep although such who have hard eyes and scales sleep more obscurely then the rest and Birds more lightly then four-footed Beasts which suck because they have a less and dryer Brain and consequently less need sleep whose use is to moisten and refresh that part Hence Man having of all Animals the largest Brain hath also need of the longest sleep which ought to be about seven hours Wherefore I cannot but wonder that Plato in his first Book of Laws would have his Citizens rise in the night to fall to their ordinary employments for this disturbing of their rest were the way to make a Common-wealth of Fools the Brain by watchings acquiring a hot and dry intemperature which begets igneous spirits whose mobility not permitting the Mind to consider the species impress'd upon them is the cause of unsteady and impetuous sallies of the Mind as on the contrary sleep too excessive fills the ventricles of the Brain wherein the Soul exercises her Faculties with abundance of vapours and humidities which offuscating and troubling the species the Mind thereby becomes slothful and dull The second said That Privations are understood by their Habits and therefore Sleep which is a privation of Sense cannot be better known than by the functions of the outward Senses which so long as an Animal exercises it is said to be awake and to sleep when it ceases to employ the same And being Sensation is perform'd by means of the animal Spirits refin'd out of the natural and vital and sent from the Brain into the Sensories which Spirits receive the species of the sensible object and carry it to the Inward Sense the common Arbiter and Judg of all external objects hence when those Spirits happen to fail or the Common Sense is bound up the other external Senses cannot discharge their offices Upon which account the Philosophers have defin'd Sleep The ligation of the First Sense or The rest of the Spirits and Blood And the Physitians The cessation of all outward Senses for the health and repose of an Animal hereby distinguishing it from the cessation of the outward Senses in Swoonings Falling-sickness Apoplexie Lethargy Carus Coma and such sorts of morbifick and praeternatural sleep produc'd by causes acting rather by an occult and somniferous property then by excess of cold or moisture otherwise Winter Ice and the coldest things should cause sleep Wine Annis Opium Henbane and abundance of hot Medicaments should not be Narcotick as experience evinces them to be But natural sleep is produc'd by vapours elevated from the aliments into the brain which moreover performing in us the office of a Ventose or Cupping-glass draws to it self those humid vapours condenses them by its coldness and resolves them into a gentle dew which falling upon the rise or beginning of the Nerves obstructs the passage to the animal Spirits the instruments of Sensation and voluntary Motion which it hinders though not Motion so much as Sensation because the Nerves of the hinder part of the Brain destinated to Motion being harder do not so easily imbibe those vapours as those of the fore-part destinated to Sensation But when the Heat and Spirits whereof there had been an absumption are again sufficiently repair'd they move anew toward the Brain where they resolve those dews which stopp'd the passage and hindred the commerce of the vital Spirits with the animal whereupon we naturally and without violence awake So likewise the violence of an extrinsecal object importunately striking the external Senses obliges the Soul to send other Spirits to the assistance of the few remaining therein and which before this supply apprehend objects only confusedly The Third said Sleep is not the Quiescence of the animal Spirits for these are active and form Dreams whilst we sleep nor of the vital which have no relaxation or rest so long as the Animal hath life much less of the natural Nutrition being perform'd best during sleep which is the cause why sleeping fattens Neither is the Brain 's humidity the cause of sleep as 't is commonly held but the defect of vital heat in the Heart in a sufficient degree for performing the functions of the outward Senses Moreover the sudden seizing and abruption of sleep which we observe cannot be produc'd but by a very movable cause such as the gross vapour of aliments is not but the vital heat is being carried into all parts of the body in an instant Whence it is that we observe the same to be more pale during sleep as having less of the said heat than during Evigilation The Fourth said That indeed the adequate cause of sleep is not a vapour arising from the aliments since it is procur'd by abundance of other causes which produce no evaporation as Weariness Musique Silence and Darkness Neither is it the above-mentioned deficience of Viâ—â—l Heat which indeed is necessary to the Organs inasmuch as they are endu'd with life but not to make them capable of sense there being sufficient in them even during sleep when the parts are found hot enough for Sensation if heat were the cause thereof as it is not But the right cause consists in the Animal Spirits for which as being the noblest instruments of the Body I conceive there is a particular faculty in the Brain which administers and governs them sending them to the Organs when there is need of them and causing them to return back in order to be restor'd and suppli'd As there is a particular faculty in the Heart over-ruling and moving the Vital Spirits as it pleases sometimes diffusing them outwards in Joy Anger and Shame sometimes causing them to retreat in order to succour the Heart in Sadness Grief and Fear The Fifth said The Empire of Sleep whom Orpheus calls King of Gods and Men is so sweet that Not to be of its party is to be an enemy to Nature 'T is the charm of all griefs both of body and mind and was given to man not only for the refreshment of both but chiefly for the liberty of the Soul because it makes both the Master and the Slave the poor and the rich equal 'T is a sign of health in young people and causes a good constitution of Brain strengthning the same and rendring all the functions of the mind more vigorous whence came the saying That the Night gives counsels because then the Mind is freed from the tyranny of the Senses it reasons more solidly and its operations are so much the more perfect as they are more independent on matter and 't was during the repose of sleep that most of the Extasies and prophetical Visions happened to the Saints Moreover frequent sleep is a sign of a very good nature For being conciliated only by the benignity of a temper moderately hot and moist the Sanguine and Phlegmatick whose humour is most agreeable are more inclined thereunto than the Bilious and
of the Days comprehended in half a year And the obliquity of the Horizon is the cause that these parallels are cut by it unequally Otherwise if these parallels were not different from the Equator or although different if they were cut equally by the Horizon as it happens in a Right Sphere the Horizon which is a great Circle passing by the Poles of these parallels which are the same with those of the World both the Days and Nights would be equal so that where the Sphere is not inclin'd as in the Right and Parallel Spheres there is no inequality of Days nor consequently of Climate so call'd from its Inclination but only in the oblique Sphere 'T is defin'd a Region of Earth comprehended between two circles parallel to the Equator in which there is the difference of half an hour in the longest days of the year It encompasses the Terrestrial Globe from East to West as a Zone doth which differs from it only as the Zone is broader whence there are many Climats in the same Zone The Ancients having regard only to so much of the Earth as they believ'd inhabited made but seven Climats which they extended not beyond the places where the longest days are 16 hours and denominated from the most remarkable places by which they made them pass as the first Northern Climat was call'd Dia Meroes hy Meroe which they began at 12 deg 43 min. from the Aequinoctial where the longest day hath 12 hours three quarters and which at present is the end of our first Climat and beginning of the second This first Climat passes by Malaca a City of the East-Indies and begins at 4 deg 18 min. Its middle from which all Climats are reckon'd hath 8 deg 34 min. and its end 12 deg 43 min. The other six Climats of the Ancients pass'd by Siene Alexandria Rhodes Rome Pontus Euxinus and the River Boristhenes Ptolomy reckons twenty one as far as the Island Thule which lies in 63 deg of Northern Latitude Our modern Astronomers make twenty four from the Aequinoctial to the Polar Circles in each of which Climats the longest day of Summer encreases half an hour above twelve according as they approach nearer those Circles beyond which to the Poles of the World they place six more not distinguish'd by the variation of half an hour but of 30 days So that there is in all sixty Climats 30 Northern and as many Southern each comprehended by two Parallels which Climats are easily found by doubling the excess whereby the longest day surpasses twelve hours the Product being the Climat of the place As if you know the longest Summer day at Paris to be 16 hours double 4 the excess above 12 and you will have 8 which is the Climat of Paris and so of others And though there be the same reason of Seasons and other variations in the Southern and Northern Climats yet since experience shews us that those of the South are not inhabited beyond the 8th which is about the Cape of Good Hope at the farthest point of Africa beyond which no Inhabitants are as yet discover'd it may seem that the diversity of Climats is not alone sufficient for long or short life but there are other causes concurring thereunto The Second said That since a thing is preserv'd by that which produces it the Sun and Stars which concur to the generation of all living Creatures must also contribute to their preservation and continuance in life which being maintain'd by use of the same things variety and change though delightful yet being the most manifest cause of brevity of life that Climat which is most constant and least variable will be the properest for longaevity and so much the more if it suits with our nature such is the first Climat next the Aequinoctial where things being almost always alike bodies accustom'd thereunto receive less inconvenience thereby then under others whose inequalities and irregularities produce most diseases The natural purity of the Air promoted by the breath of a gentle East Wind there reigning continually and the want of vapours and humidities which commonly infect our Air conduce greatly to the health of the Inhabitants also when the dryness and coldness of their temper makes longer-liv'd as appears by Ravens and Elephants the most melancholy of all Animals which are common in these parts where they live above 300 years Moreover Homer testifies that Memnon King of Aethiopia liv'd 500 years which by the report of Xenophon was the common age of most men of the same Country where Francis Alvarez affirms in our time that he saw lusty men at 150 years of age and that in Aegypt which lies near it there are more old men then in any place of the World and that women are so fruitful there that they bring forth three or four children at a time rather through the goodness of the Climat then any nitrous vertue that is in the waters of Nilus Hence possibly most Doctors place the Terrestial Paradise under the Aequinoctial and the cause of our first Fathers longaevity who having been created under this Climat seem to have lost of its duration proportionably as they remov'd from the same Northwards whence all evil comes and towards the Zones wrongfully call'd Temperate since more subject to alteration then that call'd Torrid by the Ancients who thought it unhabitable by reason of extream heat although the continual Flowers and Fruits wherewith the always verdant Trees are laden testifie the contrary The Third said Since Heaven is immutable and always like to it self the Earth and Elements alone subject to change the length and shortness of Life seems not to depend on Heaven but on Earth and the several dispositions of our Bodies and the whole World being Man's Country there is no place in it but is equally proper for his habitation provided he be born there because the Air he breathes and the Food he eats from his Nativity altering his Body at length make his temper suitable to that of the place of his Education which therefore he loves above any other The Fourth said That Heaven remaining it self immutable is nevertheless the cause of motions and mutations here below its light producing different effects in the Earth according as it is receiv'd the most sensible whereof are heat dryness and other qualities which diversifie the Seasons and Zones of which the two temperate especially the Northern seems most habitable and proper for longaevity 'T is also the most populous and its Natives are not only the most healthy and lusty but also the most refin'd and civiliz'd of all others Now of the Climats of this Zone the eighth wherein Paris lyes seems to me the healthiest of all as well for pureness of Air as all other Causes The Fifth said That the goodness of Climats depends not so much upon Heaven as the situation of each place in reference to the Winds of which the Southern being the most unhealthy therefore Towns defended by
the melancholick besides very nimble and dextrous through the plenty of spirits and as 't is easily disorder'd so likewise 't is restor'd in a little time its maladies being the shortest Moreover its vivacity is much more desirable then the heaviness and lumpishness attending the Melancholy and making the Vulgar think them Sage and prudent though they are only so in appearance whereas the Cholerick are Industrious and Courageous accomplishing whatever they attempt and as amongst Beasts and Birds the noble Lyon and Eagle are of this complexion and according to some our first Parent Adam which signifies Red was in hair and temper bilious whence perhaps also Man is call'd in the same language Ish which signifies Fire whereof choler partakes The Fifth said That indeed his readiness to obey his Wife was an effect of that Temper of which he seems rather to have been then of that laudable and perfectly temperate one which our Saviour enjoy'd But indeed Tempers being the principles of all our functions which must be different in every individual are desirable according to the Places Seasons Employments Age Sex and Inclinations of every one in particular CONFERENCE CXXXV Of Happiness and Vnhappiness and whether men are Happy or Vnhappy because they really are so or because they think themselves so THree sorts of effects are observ'd in Nature Some arise always necessarily as the vicissitudes of Days Nights and Seasons which depend upon the motion of the Stars no more alterable without a miracle then the other effects of Universal Nature Others come to pass often but not always the particular nature which produces them being sometimes hindred by some accident which makes it bring forth Monsters The last happen neither always nor often but seldom as all those which depend upon contingent causes which are of two sorts The first act by a necessity of nature without any election The second by a principle of liberty without choice or deliberation Both when they produce an effect contrary to their intention and primary design are called fortuitous causes And as those which act by natural necessity produce a casualty as when a Stone falls upon the head of any one so when those which operate by election and design produce another thing then what they had propounded to themselves they make fortune or good and ill-luck according to the good or evil arising thence by ways and springs by us unforeseen for in case the cause or motives be known the effects are no longer fortuitous and contingent because they have their manifest and certain cause So when industry labour favour or friendship procure Riches the effect is not to be ascrib'd to Fortune no more then the losses which follow upon the luxury and profusions of a disorderly life but Riches and Honours are fortuitous when they happen to persons altogether incapable thereof as also poverty infamy and contempt also to brave men whose constancy and resolution in undergoing all those disgraces hath made it be commonly said That a wise man is above fortune because he slights her stroaks by the strength of his reason which being alone capable to render us happy since Beasts destitute thereof have neither any share in good-luck or bad-luck I conceive that both the one and the other depends intirely upon our fansie and the reflection we make upon the condition of the thing possessed which appearing sometimes good and sometimes bad makes us accordingly judge our selves happy or unhappy The Second said Diversity is no where more apparent than in humane Actions the incertainty and inconstancy whereof is such that men rarely arrive at their proposed end but oftentimes behold themselves either exalted to an unhoped degree of Felicity or overwhelmed with the Misery which there was no ground to apprehend Which diversity of accidents induced Superstitious Antiquity to set up a blind and flitting Deity constant onely in her inconstancy whom they held the cause of all such effects thus betaking themselves to an imaginary canse in regard they could not or would not acknowledg the true which I attribute to every ones temperament by means of which is produced in the Soul a certain natural motion and impetuosity for obtaining some particular thing without Reasons contributing thereunto and according as a Man follows or resists these instincts and inclinations so he proves either happy or unhappy Thus he who finds himself disposed to Arms if he embrace them thrives better than in a soft and sedentary life whereunto the Melaneholly person is more addicted and prospers better herein Now because dull spirits fools and thick-skull'd fellows easily suffer themselves to be guided by those motions therefore they commonly prove more fortunate than the wise whose Prudence and Discretion causing them to make abundance of reflections upon what they undertake causes them also to lose opportunities which never return For I am not of their Opinion who hold That as there are Spirits which make the Celestial Orbes move and according to Averroes an Intelligence presiding over natural Generations so there is a particular one for the various events of life which it makes to happen according to the different intentions of the First Mover Since without recurring to such obscure and remote causes we carry in our selves those of our Felicity and Infelicity whereof we are the true Artificers which to place in the Phansie alone and not in reality is to say good is not Good since goodness being an essential affection of real entity is inseparable from it and consequently true not barely imaginary The Third said That Good being such onely upon account of its conveniency or sutableness to the Possessor there is not in this world any Absolute Good or Happiness but onely Relative and by Comparison seeing what sutes well with one doth not so with another Riches wherein most Men place their Felicity were cast into the Sea by a Philosopher that he might the better attend Contemplation Honors and Pleasures charms which most powerfully inveigle most of Man-kind are crosses and torments to some others Imprisonment one of the hardest trials of Patience is nevertheless sought by some who prefer Solitude and perpetual Restraint before the vanities of the world To have no Friends is the greatest of infelicities yet Timon made it his prime Pleasure Life the foundation of all goods hath been so tedious to some that to be deliver'd from it they have kill'd themselves and the pains afflictions and diseases leading to death are in the Stoicks account but imaginary Evils making no impression upon the wise The Fourth said Since Happiness and Unhappiness seem to be the Elements composing the Political Life of Men and the two Poles of that Globe upon which the Antients plac'd Fortune their Consideration may be taken two ways either in their Cause or in their Effect As for the first the Stoicks who establisht a Fate governing All by a Series of necessary and determinate Events were as impious as Democritus and Leucippus who on the
contrary maintain'd that all things were done by Chance in the Universe which they said it self was made by the casual occourse of their Atoms these denying the Providence of God those his Power by subjecting and tying him to the immutable Laws of Fatality But without considering things in reference to God to whom every thing is present and certain we may distinguish them into two sorts Some acting necessarily have alwayes their necessary effects others which depend absolutely upon Man's Will which is free and indifferent have accordingly Effects incertain and contingent Thus the accidents of the Sea where the vulgar believes is the chief Empire of Fortune natural deaths the births of poor and rich have regular and necessary Causes On the contrary Goods freely given or acquir'd with little industry or found have contingent Causes which being almost infinite for there is no Cause by it self but may be a Cause by accident by producing another thing than what was intended they cannot fall within the knowledge of Humane Wit which knows onely what is finite and terminate Other Events have Causes mixt of Chance and Necessity as the death of the Poet Aeschylus hapning by a Tortoise which an Eagle let fall upon his bald Head As for the second manner wherein Happiness may be consider'd namely Whether it render us happy in Reality or in Imagination 't is an accusing all Men of folly to say that Felicity is imaginary and phantastical since Nature which hath given no Desire in vain as she should have done if she had caus'd us to desire a thing that exists not makes all Men aspire to the one and fear the other There must be an Absolute Happiness as well as an Absolute Good namely the possession of this Good as that of Existence is which being the foundation of all Goods must be a Real and Absolute Good Virtue and the Honor attending it being likewise true and solid Goods their possession must adferr a semblable Felicity the verity and reality is no more chang'd by not being equally gusted by all than the savour of Meat or the Beauty of Light would be by not being perceiv'd by a sick or a blind person Yea as he that ha's a rough Diamond is not less the possessor or less rich for not knowing the value of it so he that possesses some Good ought not to be accounted less happy though he think not himself so Moreover 't would be as absurd to call a Man happy or unhappy because he thinks himself so as to believe a fool is a King or Rich because he phansies himself to have Empires and Riches The Fifth said That Happiness which is rather an Effect of our Genius as the examples of Socrates and Simonides prove than of our Temperament much less of the Stars and their influences depends not onely upon the possession of some Good or the belief a Man hath that he possesses it but upon both together namely upon the reflexion he makes upon the Good which he really possesses for want of which Children Fools Drunkards and even the Wise themselves whilst they are a sleep cannot be call'd Happy CONFERENCE CXXXVI Of the Original of Precious Stones A Stone which is defin'd a Fossile hard dry and frangible body is either common or precious Both are compounded of the Four Elements chiefly of Water and Earth but diversly proportion'd and elaborated Coarse Stones are made with less preparation their proximate matter being onely much Earth and little Water whereof is made a sort of Clay which being dry'd by Nature is hardned into a Stone Precious Stones have more of Water and less of Earth both very pure and simple whence proceeds their Lustre which attends the simplicity of the Elements and exactly mixt by Heat which concocting the aqueous humidity purifies and sublimes the same to a most perfect degree by help of that Universal Spirit where-with the Earth and whole world is fill'd on which account the Pythagoreans esteemed it a great Animal The Second said Three things are to be consider'd in reference to the original of Stones their matter their efficient cause and the place of their generation Their remote matter is Earth and Water which two Elements alone give bulk and consistence but their next matter concern'd in the Question is a certain lapidifick juice supplying the place of Seed and often observ'd dropping down from rocks which if thick and viscous makes common stones if subtil and pure the precious Now this juice not only is turn'd it self into stone but likewise turns almost all other Bodies as Wood Fruits Fishes the Flesh of Animals and such other things which are petrifi'd in certain Waters and Caves Their remote efficient cause is Heat which severing heterogeneous bodies unites those of the same nature whereof it makes the said homogeneous juice which is condens'd by cold which giving the last form and perfection to the stone is its proximate efficient cause Lastly their place is every where in the middle region of the Air which produces Thunder-bolts in the Sea which affords Coral of a middle nature between Stone and Plant and Pearls in their shells which are their wombs by means of the Dew of Heaven in Animals in Plants and above all in the Earth and its Mines or Matrices which are close spaces exempt from the injuries of Air Water or other external Agents which might hinder their production either by intermixtion of some extraneous body or by suffering the Mineral Spirits serving to the elaboration of the Stones to transpire The Third said Precious Stones produc'd for Ornament as Metals are for Use of life are of three sorts namely either bright and resplendent as the Diamond Ruby Crystal Amethyst or a little obscure as the Turquois Jasper and other middle ones without perfect lustre as the Opal and all Pearls And as the matter of common Stones is Earth the principle of Darkness so that of the precious is an aqueous diaphanous humour congeal'd by the coldness of water or earth or by the vicinity of Ice and Snow which inviron Mountains and Rocks where commonly their Mines are found and amongst others Crystal which is as 't were the first matter of other precious Stones and the first essay of Nature when she designs to inclose her Majesty in the lustre of the most glittering Jewels is nothing else but humidity condens'd by cold Whence a violent heat such as that of Furnaces resolves and melts it Moreover the effects attributed to these Stones as to stop blood allay the fumes of wine and resist hot poysons argue them caus'd only by cold which also gives them weight by condensation of their parts The Fourth said If Crystals and Stones were produc'd only by cold they could not be generated in the Isles of Cyprus the red Sea and other Southern parts but only in the Northern where nevertheless they are most rare there being Mountains where cold hath preserv'd Ice for divers Ages without ever being converted into
Mixts are compounded The Sun indeed is the Efficient Cause of all productions here below but being a celestial and incorruptible body cannot enter into the composition of any thing as a Material Cause Much less can our common Fire which devours every thing and continually destroyes its Subject But it must be that Elementary Fire which is every where potentially and actually in its own Sphere which is above that of the Air and below that of the Moon Moreover being the lightest or least heavy of all the Elements the Harmony of the Universe which consists chiefly in their situation requires that it be in the highest place towards which therefore all other Fires which are of the same Nature ascend in a point with the same violence that a stone descends towards its Centre those remaining here below being detain'd by some Matter whereof they have need by reason of the contraries environing them from which that Sublunary Fire being exempt hath nothing to do with Matter or nourishment and by reason of its great rarity and tenuity can neither burn nor heat any more then it can be perceiv'd by us The Second said That subtlety one of the principal conditions requisite to the conversion of Matter into Fire is so far from hindring that it encreases the violence and activity of Fire making it penetrate even the solidest bodies whence that pretended Fire not being mixt with extraneous things to allay its heat as that of Aqua Vitae is temper'd by its Phlegm or aqueous humidity but being all Fire in its own Sphere and natural place which heightens the Virtue and qualities of all Agents must there also heat shine burn and produce all its Actions which depend not upon density or rarity or such other accidents of Matter purely passive but upon its whole Form which constituting it what it is must also make it produce Effects sutable to its Nature Wherefore as Water condens'd into Ice or Crystal is no longer Water because it hath ceas'd to refrigerate and moisten so the Fire pretended to be above the Air invisible and insensible by reason of its rarity is not Fire but subtile Air. They who say its natural inclination to heat and burn is restrain'd by the Influences of the Heavens particularly of the cold Starrs as Saturn and the Moon speak with as little ground since the circular motion of the Heavens whereby this Fire is turn'd about should rather increase than diminish its heat And besides Fire being a necessary Agent its action can no more be hindred by such Influences than the descent of a stone downwards Whereunto add that the beams of all Stars have heat and were any cold yet those of Saturn are too remote and those of the Moon too weak in comparison of this Fire the extent whereof is about 90000. Leagues for the distance between the Earth and the Moon is almost as much namely 56. Semidiameters of the Earth from which substracting between 25. and 30. Leagues which they allot to the three Regions of the Air the rest must be occupy'd by the Fire which they make to extend from the Concave surface of the Moon to the convex surface of the Air which it would consume in less than a moment considering the great disproportion between them Moreover were there such a Fire it could not be own'd an Element because its levity would keep it from descending and entring into the Composition of mixts and were it not leight yet it would be hindred from descending by the extream coldness of the Middle Region of the Air accounted by some a barrier to the violence of that Chymerical Fire which ought rather to be reckon'd amongst their Entia Rationis than the Natural Elements whereunto Corporeity and Palpability are requisite For these Reasons I conceive with Pythagoras that the Sun is the true Elementary Fire plac'd for that purpose in the middle of the World whose Light and Heat enter into the Composition not onely of all living things but also of Stones and Metals all other Heat besides that of the Sun being destructive and consequently no-wise fit for Generation The Third said He confounds Heaven with Earth and destroyes the Nature of the Sun who takes it for an Element that is to say a thing alterable and corruptible by its contraries which it must have if it be an Element The Heat of his beams proves it not the Elementary Fire seeing commonly the nearer we are to Fire the more we feel the Heat of it but the Supream and Middle Regions of the Air are colder than ours Besides were our common fire deriv'd from the Sun it would not languish as it doth when the Sun shines upon it nor would the heat of dunghils and caves be greater in Winter than in Summer Wherefore I rather embrace the common Opinion which holds That the heaviest Element is in the lowest place and the leightest in the highest whose Action is hindred by the proportion requisite to the quantity of each Element The Fourth said That the qualities of Fire viz. Heat Dryness and Light concurring in the Sun in a supream degree argue it the Elementary Fire for Light being the Cause of Heat the Sun which is the prime Luminous Body must also be the prime Hot that is to say Fire For as the pretended one above the Air was never yet discover'd so 't is repugnant to the Order of the Universe for the leightest of Elements to be shut up in the Centre of the Earth where some place it We have but two wayes to know things Sense and Reason the latter of which is founded either upon Causes or Effects Now we know nothing of the Sun or any other Celestial Bodies otherwise then by its Effects and sensible qualities which being united in Spherical Burning-glasses as they are in the body of the Sun notifie to us by their Effects the Nature of their Cause The Fifth said That Fire being to the World what the Soul is to the Body as Life is in all the parts of the Body so also is Fire equally diffused throughout the whole World In the Air it makes Comets and other Igneous Meteors In the Earth it concocts Metals and appears plentifully in Volcanoes whose Fires would not continue alwayes if they were violently detained in those Concavities yea 't is in the Waters too whose saltness and production of Monsters cannot be without Heat Yet being the most active of all Elements it is therefore distributed in much less quantity than the rest Nature having observed the same proportion both in the greater and lesser World Man's Body in which there is less of Fire than of the other Elements Otherwise had the Fire been equal to the rest it would consume all living things to ashes Nevertheless as the fixed Heat of Animals requires reparation by the Influent Heat from the Heart the Soul 's principal seat in like manner the Elementary Fire dispersed in all part of this great body of the World needs the
Influence of the Sun's Rayes which produce and conserve it CONFERENCE CXXXIX Which is most desirable long or short Life NAture not contented to produce all things hath given them a desire of Self-preservation Even Inanimate Bodies redouble their activity at the approach of their destructive contraries whence proceeds Antiperistasis But this desire appears chiefly in Animals and above all in Man being grounded upon the Love he bears to himself Which extream Love instigating him to seek all good things contributary to his contentment makes him likewise desire long Life whereby he may continue his other enjoyments and consequently avoid all occasions of Death as that which interrupts the course of this Life and makes him cease to be Hence as by general consent Death is the most terrible of terribles so by the reason of Contraries Life is the most agreable and consequently most desirable and best thing in the World and not desirable only by all Men who are endued with Knowledg but also by all living things each after its mode and according as they are capable of desiring Plants attracting their nourishment and Animals seeking their Food with difficulty and carefully avoiding all dangers that lead to Death For though Nature loves change whereof she is the Principle yet 't is onely that of Generation or of a less into a more noble substance that of Corruption and Death she abhorrs being not further pleased in the vicissitudes of mutations than she gains by the change but she is a loser by Death which separates the Body from the Soul in the union whereof she hath all that she can wish She may disguise her self and changing of shape and countenance but can never light upon any more agreable than that which she makes appear in the Marriage of a Body with a Soul which are so perfectly united that after their dissolution our Souls alwayes retain an Inclination toward their ancient Mates which they once animated The Second said If the sentiment of Nature makes us conceive long Life desirable Reason which evinceth it full of Miseries and Calamities teaches us that the shortest is best and that we may justly wish either never to have been or to have dy'd as soon as we came into the World This was the Judgement not onely of the greatest Sages of Pagan Antiquity many of whom cheerfully quitted Life to escape its Miseries but the sometimes famous Republick of Marseilles gave Licence to the miserable to take Poyson which was kept in a publick Store Yea even the holiest Personages have been of the same Advice as Job amongst others who calls Man's Life a warfare upon Earth and curses the day of his Birth Moses and Elias who pray'd to God they might dye and Saint Paul who desires nothing so much as to be loos'd from this miserable Body in which as in a dark prison the Reasonable Soul is enclos'd and remains against its will since being of a Celestial Nature and so continually longing after the place of its extraction Death which delivers it from its fetters must be as desirable to it as contrary to the Body which having nought to hope for after this Life but to be the food of worms and corruption hath all reason to dread it and avoid the occasions of it as accordingly all such do who live onely for the Body resenting no other motions in themselves but of desire to live long Whereas Reason instructs us that here we never possess the Good whereof the Immortal Soul is capable by its two Powers the Understanding and the Will which never find any Truth or Goodness in the things of this World but what is sophisticate it makes us also conceive Life as a violent state and contrary to the Felicity of our better part The Third said Since Life is the duration of Being which undoubtedly is the greatest of all Goods Entity and Good being convertible that must be the most desirable which is of greatest continuance because it comes nearest infinity and eternity under which all Perfection is compris'd and which being therefore passionately desir'd by all Men but not attainable by any they endeavor to partake as much of it as they can by prolongation of Life which is the foundation not onely of the Goods of the Body and Fortune whose sweetness makes amends for some Evils of Life but also of the Mind in which Natural Felicity consists whereunto amongst other conditions long Life is requisite both for attaining of Knowledge and Virtue not to be gotten without long time which renders Men knowing and prudent as for making others taste the fruits of an exemplary Life The Fourth said That Beasts and even Stones having the good of Existence as well as we that alone is not sufficient to render Life desirable in regard Non-existence is much rather to be wisht than a Being alwayes miserable what ever some say to the contrary since even our Saviour saith It had been better for Judas never to have been born then to have fallen into the crime of Treason Moreover Seneca saith No person would accept of Life if he knew how dear it must cost him Hence we enter into the World weeping as if it were against our consent and as our Lives begin with tears so they are continu'd with labor and ended with pain Nor have we more reason to desire long Life for the Goods of the Mind which consist in Virtue alone For if we be vicious 't is expedient both for our selves and the Publick that we live but little for fear of corrupting others by our evil Examples If virtuous 't is much to be fear'd lest we be corrupted by the converse of the wicked who are very numerous which was the cause why God by a special favour took away Enoch in the midst of the course of his Life and transported him into the Terrestrial Paradise The fifth said If a long Life were less desirable than a short God should have deceiv'd those that honour their Parents by promising them a bad salary in recompence of a good Action Nor ought Physick to trouble it self and those that use it by so many Rules and Receipts were a short Life that is to say a speedy death so desirable nor would the Laws punish Criminals with Death if what they give them were better than what they take from them Moreover as the long-liv'd Oak and Palm-Tree are more excellent than the Mushrome Hysop and the Rose Stags Elephants Eagles Ravens and the Phoenix more perfect than Butterflies and those Insects which they call Ephemera because they live but one day so amongst Men those that live long seem to have some advantage above those that are of a short Life having the Principles of their Generation more vigorous wherein nevertheless the Sex Temperament Climate Habitation and manner of living make a notable difference Sanguine Men and the Inhabitants of Temperate Regions commonly living longer than Women cholerick Persons and such as live under intemperate Climates The Sixth
excepting even virtuous ones which is not found in a Bird. The Swallow is skill'd in Architecture the Halcyon is able to divine how far the Nile will overflow and knows that out of Nature's respect to her there will be no Tempest at Sea while she is building her Nest the Goose is so safe a Guard that it sometimes sav'd the Capitol to the shame of the Sentinels the Wren serves for a guide and a scout to the Crocodile the Crow and the Turtle are patterns of conjugal amity so are the Storks of piety and even the swarms of Bees are models of Common-wealths and the Pismires when Age and Experience has render'd them more advised acquire wings The Silk-worm is nothing but a Caterpiller till its wings appear and then fluttering about it perpetuates its species with such prudence that it doth not lay its Eggs in heaps which would hinder their hatching but disperses them in several places in order to being more commodiously animated by the heat of the Sun Then as for Art we see no Animals besides Men capable of speech the first of Disciplines but Birds And the particular Examples of the Elephant and a few other Beasts that have shewn some shadow of Judgement are out-done by the Eagle which flew into the fire wherein her Mistresses Body was burning and many other Instances too numerous to be mention'd The Second said That the little head of Birds in comparison of the rest of their Body their driness and abounding Choler permit them not to be so intelligent as other Animals their chattering jargon as little deserving the name of a Language as their other actions do that of Virtue Moreover their sleep being not so sound and deep as that of Terrestrial Animals which by sucking their Dams are more humid and sleep being the restorer of Spirits Birds cannot have such plenty as other Creatures Whence they suffer themselves to be more easily taken than Land-Animals whose Bodies being more symbolical with ours they must also have greater aptitude for exercising some functions correspondent to those of our Mind For the cavities of their head and brains more resemble ours than those either of Birds or Fishes particularly that of the Ape which consequently is the most intelligent of all Animals next Man with whom all will agree that no other Animal can dispute the preeminence of Judgement with the least shew of Reason if any should it would never gain the Cause in regard Man must be the Judge The Third said Man hath no more reason to award this Cause to himself than to pretend to the advantage of flying better than Birds or swimming better than Fishes who exceed all Creatures in point of Health even to a Proverb which is a thing altogether necessary to the functions of the Soul Moreover they are of a very long Life which begets Experience as that doth Understanding Their Health is manifested by their Fecundity and since coldness is the Complexion of the wife and Salt is reckon'd the Symbol of Wisdom Fishes the inhabitants of the Sea and the coldest of all Creatures must have a share thereof Besides if softness of Flesh be a sign of goodness of Witt every where else as 't is in Man and Physiognomy teaches us to draw consequence from other Creatures to him Fishes have this advantage above all the Inhabitants either of the Air or Earth both which were indeed made for Man but the Sea was primarily made for Fishes it s other conveniences being only accidental Silence the common distinction between the wise and the foolish is natural to them whereas the voices and chantings of Birds and other Animals is oftentimes the occasion of their ruine Yea they are so subtle that Fisher-men cannot take them but with a white line of the colour of the water otherwise if it be gross and visible they will not come near it Diffidence the Parent of safety is more common to them than to all other Animals and their vigilance is greater Land-Animals have no sleight equall to that imperceptible charm whereby the Torpedo chills the arm of the Fisher-man or to that of the Cuttle-fish which when she is in danger of being taken moils the water with her Ink to keep her self from being seen or to that of the Polypus who becomes of the Colour of the Rock upon which it holds to void being perceiv'd And though the Element of Water so separates us from the commerce of its Inhabitants that the hundreth part of what concerns them is unknown to us yet there is none but observes that Fishes need more sleights to secure themselves from the ambushes and hostilities of others than the beasts of the field have which are also more easily taken The Fish call'd the Mullet strikes off the bait of the hook with her tail instead of being taken by it and if she cannot do so she is contented to bite it round about and the Sea-wolf finding her self taken shakes her head this way and that way with much pain till she have cast out the hook again and for the same purpose the Sea-fox turnes her inside outwards The Loubine and Sea-dog finding themselves surrounded with the Net make a hole in the ground and sculk therein till the Net be drawn over them but the Dolphin rejoyces in the Net because he may with ease fill himself with his fellow-prisoners yet when he perceives he is drawing near the shore he bites the Net which if he cannot do quick enough the Fisher-men knowing him a Friend to Man pardon him the first time and only thrusting a bul-rush through his skin let him go if he be taken again which seldom happens as Plutarch saith out of whom most of these Relations are taken he is beaten Yea they are ingenious not only for themselves but for others for when the Gilt-head hath swallow'd the hook his companions bite the line and if one of them fall into one of the Meshes they lend him their tails to bite and draw him through and when the Barbles see one of their companions caught they get upon him and with the indented spine they have upon their backs cut it asunder Crassus's Lamprey would take bread out of his hand and was bewail'd by him when it dy'd The story of Arion and that of the Fish call'd Manaro in the Island of Hispaniola which was delighted with praises and Musick carry'd nine or ten persons upon his back and having been wounded by a Spaniard disappear'd the Raye which Olaus writes defended a man from Dogs upon the shore of Denmark and the Sea-Eele which the Indians carry behind their Boats to let him play about the Tortoises and other Fishes which they take are abundant instances that Fishes are both sociable and docible This also is justifi'd by the Pinatere which pricks the Oyster to advertise it when its prey is within by the Spongothere which performs the same office for the Spunge and by the Whale's guide whom she suffers to sleep in
her throat and without whom she would dash against the shore by the Pike which keeps company with the Tench whose sliminess serves to close his wounds by the Tunnies who always set their good eye toward the shore and move well order'd in a cubick squadron by the Sea-Urchins which presaging a tempest lade themselves with stones for fear of being carry'd away by the waves and by all Fishes in general which swim against the wind lest it should open their scales excepting one whose scales are set the contrary way CONFERENCE CLXVIII What is the cause of the Crisis of Diseases CRisis if you consider its derivation from a word which signifies either to judge or to separate or to encounter agrees in some sort to every of those significations for a Disease is judg'd by it it separates the good humors from the bad and that after a combat between Nature and the Disease But 't is commonly defin'd a mutation of a Disease either to Health or Death for better or for worse We must first consider in it the term of its commencement which is the Augmentation of the Malady whence acute ones have their Crisis sooner then Chronical the very acute being sometimes judg'd in four days in which time very malignant Fevers sweep men away but commonly within seven days acute Diseases are judg'd by the 14th or 20th day and sometimes not before the 40th Chronical Diseases extend to the 120th after which term they count no longer by days but by moneths and years The term it ends at is either Health or Death or the change of one Disease into another The term through which it passes is the space of time employ'd by Nature in the coction separation and excretion of the peccant Humours The Agent or Motor is Nature which must be assisted in imperfect Crises not in such as are perfectly made Lastly we must consider what is mov'd namely the Humors for Crisis hath place only in humoral Diseases A perfect Crisis judges the Malady perfect either to Health or Death and hath had its indices of coction the fourth day for the Crisis on the seventh the eleventh for that on the fourteenth and the seventeenth for that on the twentieth it must also be manifest either by evacuation or abscess for those that mend without apparent cause relapse and fall upon critical days without any dangerous symptom and after such evacuation the Patient must be manifestly better especially if it be universal and sutable to his Nature Age and Malady Long Diseases are judg'd by Abscesses acute by Evacuation In young persons Fevers are judg'd commonly by Haemorrhage or some flux of blood in old men by that of the belly Now besides those Critical and Indicative days there are others call'd Intercidents which judge imperfectly and others also Medicinal because in them purgatives may be adminished which days are sometimes Critical but always unfaithful and commonly mischievous which will better appear by this general application The first day is reckon'd from the hour of the first invasion felt by the Patient in acute Diseases and from the time of his decumbiture in Chronical Yet in women newly deliver'd we begin not to reckon from the time of parturition unless it were precipitated but from the time of the Fever and this first day judges no other Disease but a Febris Ephemera or one-day Fever The second day is vacant and without effect The third is Intercident call'd by some Provocant because it irritates and provokes Nature to make excretions before the time for being odd it causes some motion in the morbifick matter but imperfectly as not following the order of Nature mention'd hereafter neverthess t is Critical in very acute Maladies and such as disorder the Laws of Nature The fourth is an index of the seventh and shews what is to be expected that day by either the Concoction or Crudity of the Urin and other excrements no laudable Crisis hapning without Concoction precedent Which holds good not only in continual Fevers but also in the fits or accessions of Intermitting ones for the fourth day being the middlemost between the first and the seventh it foreshews the design and strength or weakness of Nature and what she is able to do on the seventh The fifth resembles the third being likewise provocatory in Diseases wherein Nature hath made an unprofitable attempt on the third which she then endeavours to repair but unsuccessfully too this Crisis being most commonly imperfect The sixth is also Intercident but ordinarily very badly critical Whence Galen compares it to a cruel and faithless tyrant which precipitates the Patient into evident danger of life if it do not kill him It hath place chiefly in cholerick Diseases for in sanguine ones salutiferous Crises happen on this day which is even the Blood being observ'd to move on even days On the contrary the seventh resembles a just and gentle King or Magistrate for neither precipitating nor deferring too long the judgment of the Patient it gives him time of consideration judging him after its Indices fully and perfectly safely manifestly and without danger 'T is call'd Radical as being the root and foundation of all the other Critical Days and the end of the first week The eighth is of kin to the sixth but not quite so dangerous The ninth is the greatest Intercident and comes nearest to the nature of the Critical though it be not of their number The cause whereof is its being compos'd of odd numbers wherein we have said that morbifick humors are commonly mov'd or else because 't is equally distant from 7 and 11. The tenth resembles the eighth in danger and other circumstances The eleventh is an index of the fourteenth to which it hath the same reference that the fourth hath to the seventh saving that the second week is less active then the first and the third then the second The twelfth is not of any consideration and Galen saith he never observ'd any Crisis good or bad on it The like of the thirteenth The fourteenth follows the seventh in dignity and judges those Diseases which the seventh did not being the end of the second week and in this consideration odd The fifteenth and sixteenth are not any-wise remarkable The seventeenth is an index of the twentieth till which the intervening are insignificant and this twentieth is taken by Physicians for the end of the third week because they make the same begin from the fourteenth inclusively From the 20th to the 40th which is the end of Crisis in acute diseases every seventh day is critical But after the 40th Diseases are call'd Chronical and have their Crisis every 20th day to 120 so much the more obscure as they are distant from the beginning Of all which changes the Moon seems rather to be the cause then the other Planets or the vertue of Numbers as being more active by reason of her proximity and various apparitions The Second said That the reason upon which Astrologers
prizes of the Commodity he intends to deal in Which hath gain'd great Credit to this Assembly by the printed Bills it hath sometimes sent abroad containing the currant prizes of all Wares for every week in imitation of the City of Amsterdam For by this means the Merchant needs only discount the charges of transportation and make a Reduction of Weights and Measures to see his evident profit yet alwayes carefully observing to draw a line with some imaginary summ for hazards and contingences which may happen unexpectedly it being impossible what-ever care be us'd to regulate exactly the gain of Merchandize as depending partly on Chance and partly on the Will and Phansie of Men so that a Commodity which for being to day in fashion or otherwise in credit would yield twenty in the hundred profit to the Owner sometimes leaves him a loser or he is forc'd to keep it long in his Ware-house CONFERENCE CLXXIX What are the most common Causes of Law-suits and why they are more now than heretofore PLato designing a Common-wealth whose Citizens might live in good intelligence justly excludes out of it the words of Mine and Thine conceiving that so long as there was any thing to be divided there would ever be Male-contents because Self-love the root from whence the too great desire of keeping and acquiring arises acts variously in Men by main force and strong hand in time of War and in Peace by Law-suits Now the desire of Getting having never been so great as at this day nor so much countenanc'd and rewarded since in consideration of wealth most Offices are dispos'd of 't is no wonder if Law-suits be more numerous at this day than in times past The Second said That Community of Goods feign'd by the Poets and exemplifi'd in the Primitive Church bating the Charity which produc'd it would cause as many mischiefs and consequently Law-suits as there are at present For every one would endeavour to appropriate what should be common and despise it if not able to compass it as we see common Causes are neglected and commonly lost for private interest Whence appears the impertinence of some Legislators and of the Nicolaitans who that the Children might be lov'd the more would have Wives common for common Wives and Children would be own'd by no Body and if such Women as belong but to two or three keep them alwayes in jealousie and many times ingage them in a Law-suit what would those do that belong'd to all the world Wherefore I conceive that if contrary Effects have contrary Causes 't is Plenty and its Daughter Pride that causeth Law-suits and Poverty and Humility makes Peace and Agreements Which the French Democritus intimates where he introduces an old man reconciling two Adversaries but 't is after they are both undone Thus also the Circle of Humane Life represents Labour holding Wealth by the Hand Wealth holding Pride Pride holding Contention which causeth Poverty this Humility which again produces Labour that Wealth and so round again For of fifty Law-suits not one would begin between the parties or at least it would soon be determin'd if either would humble themselves as much one to the other as they do to their Judges yea oftentimes to their Council Wherefore Vanity being greater in this Age than ever it was although with less reason in most 't is no wonder if our times abound more with Law-suits than the former The Third said That such as are at their ease have no mind to Law-suits and therefore 't is not Plenty that begets them but Necessity yet not an absolute one for he that hath nothing cannot go to Law but such that the one cannot pay what he owes and the other cannot be without it In every other Case Accommodements are possible 'T is from this Source that so many Seisures and Sentences proceed which the indebted would never suffer had they wherewithall to pay considering that the whole charges must fall upon themselves Now as there were never so many rich so there were never so many poor as there are at this day in France because every body labours out of the vanity above-mention'd to disable themselves every day more and more laughing at the Constitutions which are made to reduce us to frugality and ascribing all inconveniences both publick and private to any other Cause but themselves The Fourth said That though the Ages past having had the same vicissitudes of Peace and War and of Poverty and Riches yet had they not so many Law-suits as there are at present and therefore some other Cause thereof must be sought which possibly is this That the Spirits of Men are become more refin'd and subtle in the several Ages of the world and consequently advanc'd to a higher pitch of maliciousness whence many difficulties and contest arise in such matters wherein the goodness and simplicity of our Ancestors found none at all Nor hath the multitude and diversity of Laws been a small occasion of this bad event For besides the Roman Laws which lay long in oblivion and were restor'd to light by Veruher in the year 1127. and the Canons compil'd by Gratian whence came the judicial formalities our Customs and our Ordinances and amongst others those made since Charls VIII with long preambles and reasonings in imitation of Justinian have stirr'd up more Law-suits than there were in a thousand years before So that hath been good work for such as were minded to draw profit thereby to make so confus'd and intricate an Art of the Law that there is almost no Case wherein they cannot find some trick to multiply a Suit and render it immortal Moral Reason the foundation of the Law admits a thousand different faces not only in circumstances of Fact but also in matter of Law whence there are few Laws but have their contraries The Fifth said That the multiplicity of our Law-suits is to be attributed to the humor of the French Nation which is desirous of change and naturally subtle and eloquent Whence a Latine Poet stills France the Nurse of Lawyers Likewise the improvement of Learning in this last Age hath contributed much thereunto And the sight of great Estates gotten by the Law hath induc'd many Parents to put their Children to that profession as the readiest way to advancement Such as could not be Counsellors have been made Attornies Solliciters Sergeants and this great number of people employ their inventions to get a livelyhood which they cannot do without Law-suits And therefore 't is no wonder if they advise continue multiply and eternise them as much as they can egging on the Plaintiff by the motive of Profit and the Defendant by that of Self-preservation and refusing to the more simple their writings and other such helps as might bring them to accord The Sixth said That Law-suits increase or diminish according to the diversities of proportions kept in the Administration of Justice For some measure them by the Law of Nature whereby all Men are born equal and
Liquors represent which Masses he holds between his teeth incorporated with some gum which fastens them there so that as the Water he drinks passes impetuously between his teeth it derives colours and odors from the same Which is the reason why the water he first casts forth is most colour'd whereas if the Dye proceeded from his Stomack it would be deeper at last of all as having acquir'd more digestion by a longer infusion The Sixth said That Histories are full of several particular Constitutions of the Natural Parts witness the example of the Maid mention'd by Cardan who drinking but two pints of water a day piss'd twenty and that of the Emperor Maximinus who commonly eat forty pound weight of meat with proportionable drink and sweat so abundantly that he fill'd 'T is said That Theagenes the Thasian eat a Calf for his dinner and Milo the famous Wrastler of Croton devour'd a 100. pound of Flesh a Hogshead of Wine and Bread proportionable Such was that Parasite who one day at the Table of the Emperor Aurelius eat a Boar a Sheep a Pig and an hundred Loaves and drunk half a tun of Wine All which stories render less strange the quantity of this Maltese's Drink whose colour possibly afterwards he disguises with powders hid in his Handkerchief which he handles so often or by the help of a double Glass of which his Vessels are made or by some other trick whereto he ha's inur'd himself for many years The Seventh said That mineral waters are usually drunk with more ease in great quantity by half than common water can be because their tenuity makes them pass immediately into the habit of the Body And if you consider that this fellow drinks only out of small vessels and those not always full as also with what nimbleness he dispatches his work you will much abate the opinion that he drinks so much as is generally believed Besides though his pail be of a middle size yet 't is never quite full and he spends much water in washing his mouth and his glasses and some too is left behind Nor is it absurd to think that before his shewing himself to drink he swallows a bolus of Brazil or of Alkanet or Fearn Root or of red Sanders or Indian Wood or some such other thing in powder after which drinking two or three glasses of water he interposes some interval that the same may be the better tinctur'd in his Stomack which time being pass'd he drinks about two quarts of water which soon after he brings up red appearing so both in the Air and in the glasses Which colour being weak for want of time to be well imbib'd by the water is wholly lost when the same is powr'd into a vessel wherein there is a little Verjuice Vinegar juice of Citron Spirit of Vitriol or other such acid liquor which is proper to consume the said color And 't is observable that the last water he vomits is continually paler than the first the tincture being diminisht by the quantity of water Add hereunto that 't is likely his glasses are smear'd with some essences which seem transparent to the Spectators for though he makes shew of washing them he only passes the brims dextrously over the water and lets none of it enter into them As for the violence wherewith he spouts forth the water it must be confess'd that the fellow hath a great natural propensity to vomiting which by frequent repetition is become habitual to him Custom being capable to produce such effects that I have seen a Beggar about fifty years old by being exercis'd thereunto piss as high as a pike CONFERENCE CCII. Why dead Bodies bleed in the presence of their Murderers HOnest Antiquity was so desirous of knowing the Truth that when natural and ordinary proofs fail'd they had recourse to supernatural and extraordinary Such was the Jews water of Jealousie which made the otherwise undiscoverable Adulterer burst in sunder the innocent Vestal's Sieve in which being accus'd of Incest she carry'd water without shedding Such also were the Oaths made upon Saint Anthonie's arm of so great reverence that 't was believ'd the perjur'd would burn a year with the fire of that Saint and in our time the excommunication of Saint Geneviesue which those that incurr are commonly reckon'd not to out-live a year In like sort the zeal of Men against that horrid crime of Murder hath made them cherish a perswasion that a Carkase will bleed before its Murderers though most slain Bodies bleed when they are stirr'd that so the Conscience of the Actors being disturb'd they might either by word or gesture be brought to make discovery of themselves For indeed the Blood which was congeal'd in the Veins presently after death becomes liquid again after two or three dayes when it is in its tendency to corruption which Liquefaction and the Inquisition after the Murderer hapning commonly at the same time 't is no wonder if the Body bleed in the Murderer's presence since it doth so frequently when he is absent Yet because this false perswasion from the co-incidence of times ceases not sometimes to have its effect and to discover Truth therefore Legislators have thought fit to authorize it and to use it as an Argument at least to frighten the Murderer though indeed 't is no conclusive one to condemn him The Second said That 't is not credible that Courts of Justice who often admit this proof to good purpose could so continue in ignorance of Natural Causes as not to discern the effusion of Blood ensuing upon its putrefaction in the Veins from that which happens upon confrontation of a Murderer 'T is better therefore to seek further for the cause than to question the effect which some attribute to some secret Antipathy of the murder'd person's blood to that of his Murderer or else to their mutual emission of spirits which still seeking the destruction of each other's person those of the Murderer being the strongest because still living cause a commotion in the Blood of the dead which thereupon breaks forth at the out-let of the wound Campanella attributes it to the sense where-with all things are indu'd and which still remains in these dead Bodies so that having a sense of their Murderers and perceiving them near hand they suffer two very different motions Trembling and Anger which cause such a commotion in the Blood that it flows forth at the wound For the spirits which during life had such perceptions as were necessary for their receiving and obeying the Soul's commands retain somewhat thereof after death and are capable of discerning their friends and their enemies The Third said If this opinion concerning the emanation of spirits whether by Sympathy or Antipathy be true it will follow That one who hath done a Murder with gun-shot cannot be discover'd by this sign and that one slain in his Wife's arms and in a crowd of his friends that endeavor'd to defend his life will bleed rather in
meditations leaves the Spirits in the Organs whose function it is in the mean time to receive the impressions of the external objects and convey them into the common Sense and thence into the Imagination and Memory whereas 't is expected that the Ecstacy should leave the Body without action Whence therefore I conclude that there is not any at all in regard that an Ecstacy signifying a state of the Soul besides that which is natural to her and besides the natural consequence there is between the actions of the senses and those that are proper to the Rational Soul it may be affirm'd that such a state never happens and that the Soul shall not be absolutely freed from the incumbrances and distractions of the Body till after Death And this hath been sufficiently acknowledg'd by Socrates in Phoedon notwithstanding all the Ecstacies attributed to him and Aristotle whose thoughts were more abstracted and transcended those of all others would not by any means admit of Ecstacies from a natural cause but attributes them all to God Which procedure of his hath been approved by Scaliger and many others CONFERENCE CCXIII. Of the Cock and whether the Lyon be frightned at his Crowing THe Germans being engag'd upon an expedition of War had some reason to carry a Cock along with them to serve them for an incitement and example of Vigilance Thence haply proceeded the custom which some Mule-drivers and Waggoners still observe of having one fasten'd to the leading Mule or Horse and sometimes for want of that adorning them with a plume of his or some other feathers 'T was upon this account that Phidias's Minerva had a Cock upon her head-piece unless it be attributed to this that the said Goddess had also the presidency and direction of War where there is no less need of Vigilance than Industry though that Bird belongs to her sufficiently upon the score of his other qualities as being so gallant and courageous as many times rather to lose his Life upon the spot than quit the desire of victory and when he is engag'd fighting with such fury that Caelius Aurelian relates that one who had been peck'd by a Cock in the heat of fighting grew mad upon it For the Passion of Anger being a short fury 't is possible it may extreamly heighten the degree of heat in a temperament already so highly cholerick that in time the body of the Cock becomes nitrous and upon that consideration is prescrib'd to sick persons for the loosening the belly and that after he hath been well beaten with a wand and the feathers pluck'd while he is alive before he is boyl'd It may be further urg'd that this Courage of the Cock was the motive which inclin'd Artaxerxes King of Persia to grant him who kill'd Prince Cyrus the priviledge of carrying on his Javelin a little Cock of Gold as a singular acknowledgement of his Valour Whereupon the Souldiers of the Province of Caria whereof he who had the aforesaid priviledge of the Cock was a Native in imitation of him instead of Corslets wore Cocks upon their head-pieces whence they had the name of Alectryons or Cocks in Latin Galli which possibly is the reason that gave the French that name And whereas the Cock commonly crows after he hath beaten another it came also to be the Hieroglyphick of Victory and that haply gave the Lacedaemonians occasion to sacrifice a Cock when they had overcome their Enemies This Creature was also dedicated to Mars and the Poets feign that he had sometime been a young Souldier whom that God of War order'd to stand sentinel when he went in to Venus to give him notice of Vulcan's return but he having slept till after the Sun was risen and by that neglect of duty Mars being surpriz'd with her he was so incens'd that he metamorphos'd him into a Cock whence it comes say they that being ever since mindful of the occasion of his transformation he ever crowes when the Sun approaches our Horizon This fable how ridiculous soever it may be thought is as supportable as that of the Alcaron which attributes the crowing of our Cocks to one which it saies there is in Heaven a Cock of such a vast bulk that having his feet on the first of the Heavens the head reaches to the second and this Cock crowing above awakens and incites all those upon Earth to do the like as these last set one another a crowing as if they all crow'd at the same instant all over the world The Cock was also dedicated to the Sun and Moon to the Goddess Latona Ceres and Proserpina whence it came that the Novices and such as were initiated in their mysteries abstain'd from the eating of it It was also the same to Mercury in regard that vigilance and early rising are requisite in Merchants And thence it came that he was painted under the form of a Man sitting having a Crest or Comb on his Head Eagle's claws instead of Feet and holding a Cock upon his fist But there was a particular consecration made of him to Aesculapius which oblig'd Socrates at his death to entreat his Friends to sacrifice a Cock to him since the Hemlock where-with he was poyson'd had wrought well The Inhabitants of Calecuth sacrifice him to their divinity under the form of a he-goat And Acosta after Lucian affirms that anciently the Cock was ador'd as a God which Christianity not enduring hath order'd them to be plac'd upon Churches on the tops of steeples and other very high structures that by their turning about they might tell the beholders which way the Wind blew unless haply some would refer it to the repentance of Saint Peter at the second crowing of one of them As concerning the crowing of this Creature it is commonly attributed to his heat and may be a certain discovery of his joy at the approach of the Star of the same temperament with him And whereas he is more susceptible than any other of the impressions of the Air whence it comes that being moisten'd by the vapors he crows with a hoarser voice which Labourers look on as a prediction of Rain it may be thence consequent that he is the first sensible of the coming of the Sun Moreover whereas there is a Solar Animal such as is also the Lyon but in a lower degree than he the species of Birds being hotter and dryer as being lighter than that of four-footed Beasts it thence follows that the Cock hath an ascendent over the Lyon which no sooner hears his crowing but it awakens in his Imagination those species which cause terror to him Unless we would rather affirm that the spirits of the Cock are communicated to the Lyon by that more than material voice and as such more capable of acting than the spirits issuing out of the Eyes of sick persons which nevertheless infect those who are well and look on them nay if we may believe the Poet bewitch even innocent Lambs The Second said That
the Night correcting that hot and dry distemper it is the more convenient that Sleep should do as much in the Day time by taking off then somewhat of their Choler The Second said That the retrival and restauration of the Spirits obliges the Animal to sleep which ought to continue at least for such a space of time as amounts to the third part of that a man hath been waking and should never exceed the one half of it Far is it therefore from being imaginable that Nature should be able to endure what is affirmed of the seven Sleepers or the long nap of Epimenides which lasted fifty years Nor are we to give any more credit to what is related to us concerning a Plant in the Low-Countries which will keep people waking many nights and dayes together without any inconvenience but the time when we should begin or end our sleep being left to our own discretion 't is requisite we should accommodate our selves to the order prescrib'd by Nature which hath appointed the day to labour and the night to rest in Nay it is also the advice of Hippocrates Galen and all Physicians who think it not enough to direct rest in the night and waking in the day but also conceive very great hopes of those who in the time of their sickness are so irregular therein Add to this that darkness silence and the coldness of the night being fit to recruit the Spirits and promote their retirement within whereas light noise and the heat of the day are more proper to occasion their egress for the exercise of actions which granted he who observes not this rule charges Nature with an erronious proceeding And that this is her way is apparent hence that those Animals which are guided only by her motion which is as certain as our reason is ordinarily irregular go that way to work Cocks and other Birds go to their rest and awake with the Sun if any of our Domestick Creatures do otherwise our irregularity is the cause thereof and that perversion is of no less dangerous consequence than that of the Seasons which is ever attended by diseases And who makes any doubt but that the greatest perfection of the Heavens consists in their regular motion the principal cause of their duration Which order since we are not able to imitate it is but requisite we should come as near it as we can in our actions among which sleeping and waking being the hindges on which all the others of our life do hang if there be any irregularity in these confusion and disorder must needs be expected in all the rest as may be seen in the lives of Courtiers of both Sexes who turn night to day and day to night a course of life much different from that which is observ'd by the Superiours and Members of regulated companies Besides it is the Morning that not only holds a stricter correspondence with the Muses but is also the fittest time for the performance of all the functions of Body and Mind Then is it that Physicians prescribe exercises in regard that the Body being clear'd of the Excrements of the first and second concoction is wholly dispos'd for the distribution of Aliment and evacuation of the Excrements of the third So that he who spends that part of the day about his affairs besides the expedition he meets with does by that means maintain the vigour of his Body and Mind which is commonly dull'd by sleeping in the day time which fills the Head with vapours and when exercise comes to succeed it in the warmest part of the day the heat which is then commonly greatest makes it less supportable Therefore Nature who is a sure guide inclines us to sleepiness in the Evening there being not any thing but the multiplicity and distraction of Civil Affairs which depriving us of that Function as it does of divers others makes the Life of Man so much the less certain the more he is involv'd in Affairs whereas the duration of that of Animals and next to them of Country-people and such as comply with the conduct of Nature is commonly of a greater length and more certain CONFERENCE CCXXI Whether the Child derives more from the Father or the Mother IF our Fore-fathers may be conceiv'd wise enough to have known the nature of things it is to be acknowledg'd that the Child derives most from the Father since that they thought fit to bestow on him his name rather than that of the Mother and that the name is the mark and character of the thing Besides the Male being more perfect larger and stronger than the Female which indeed is an imperfection and default of Nature whose constant design it is to make a Male and is not disappointed but through want of heat vigour and temperament it is but rational that what proceeded from these two should have the denomination from the more perfect of them Thus a Regiment is known by the name of the Colonel a City by that of its Founder a Law and Ordinance by that of the Law-giver and a Receipt the Composition whereof consists of two simple medicaments hath most of the nature of the stronger and that which is of greatest virtue This is further confirm'd by the common Comparison which is us'd to express the difference there is between the Father and the Mother in the business of generation For the Mother and particularly the Matrix is compar'd to a field and the paternal seed to the grain which is sown in that field which serves well enough in order to its sprouting and shooting forth but supplies it only with matter which is determinated by the form of the grain from which the Plant produc'd of it receives its being So that the present Question amounts to no more than if a Man should ask Whether an ear of Wheat deriv'd more from the ground or from the seed that had been sowne in it A further proof hereof may be deduc'd from the instruments of generation which being more apparent in the man than in the woman are a silent insinuation that the former contribute more thereto than the latter And the greatest and most remarkable difference that there is between the Children being that of the Sex the experiment alledg'd by Physicians that if the right Testicle be bound Males will be produc'd as Females will if the contrary clearly shews that by the Father's part the Sex is determinated and consequently it is from him that there do also proceed the least individual differences and circumstances wherein the likeness or unlikeness of Children to their Fathers and Mothers either in Mind or Body doth consist For if the Males especially should retain more from the Mothers than they do from the Fathers that proverbial saying would prove false which affirms that Fortes creantur fortibus in regard that most women are chargeable with a want of Courage And daily experience makes it apparent that one of the greatest and most common causes of
please that they employ'd them not in their presages but only towards the Spring After which especially towards the month of August they made no account of them in regard they were not then in so much vigour nor in so good case yet did they appoint such a dependance among them that the Auguries taken from those that were inferiour gave place to the others of a higher quality So that if a Crow chanced to pass by while they were attentively divining by the flight of a Dove this lanter auspice was to no purpose no more then would be that of other Birds upon the arrival of the Eagle which also would signifie nothing upon the fall of a thunderbolt which disturbed all their mysteries with much more reason then a Rat might do which had no sooner appear'd in the Assembly but the whole Ceremony was put off to another more convenient time True it is then that some advantages may be made of Birds in order to the drawing of auguries and presages of natural effects such as are rain thunder tempests winds heat drought cold frost snow hail and other changes of weather produc'd by the impressions of the Heavens the Elements and other Causes as well general as particular but not to make any predictions thence of such events and accidents as depend on an infinite number of circumstances of time place and persons who being purely free agents their actions are wholly voluntary and consequently impossible to be predicted what artifices soever may be us'd to do it Whereto we may add this Remark that those artifices being full of abundance of vain and pernicious observations the sentence of condemnation past against them is just not only that of the Canon and Civil Laws which severely punish such as make use thereof but also that pronounc'd by the mouth of God who expressly forbids his people in the twentieth chapter of Leviticus to make their souls abominable by beast or by fowl threatning with death the Wizard and him that had a familiar Spirit CONFERENCE CCXXXVI Whether those Children who are born with Cawls about their whole or some parts of their Bodies are always fortunate and why CHildren do ordinarily come naked out of their Mother's Wombs when after their struggling with Nature they begin their entrance into the World with crying and tears acknowledging their weakness and the miseries they are likely to be expos'd to in the sequele of their lives Yet there are some Children excepted from this general Rule and thence is it that some would have them exempted from the misfortunes common to all the rest upon this accompt that they are born with cawls about them that is are encompass'd by a membrane which comes over their heads and their shoulders call'd by the Greeks Amnios which is the innermost of the three membranes wherein the wombe-lodg'd infant is enwrapped called by some Midwives the Coife or Biggin of the Child by others the Childs shirt and in some places known by the name of the Silihow by reason of its tender and delicate intertexture which other Children quit in their Mothers wombs before they come out thence with the other Membrane called Chorion of which together with that mass of flesh which had serv'd them for a cushion and support during the time of the praegnancy are fram'd the Secondines or After-burthen so called because it comes not out till after the Child is born And as these Children born thus cawl'd and coif'd with this tunicle which like a large Hood or Capouch covers their heads and necks seem not to participate of the nakedness of the others who bring nothing into the World so is it to be imagin'd that they are not so much subject to the miseries and calamities inseparable from the common life of other men inasmuch as their beginning being different from that of others who come after the ordinary way into the World upon the score of this special priviledge of having their heads furr'd and cover'd the consequence of it ought in all probability to be extraordinary and full of happiness whereof if this coif be not the cause yet have some at least observ'd that it hath always been the sign and that all those who have been born after that manner have been very fortunate The History of Antoninus sirnamed Diadumenus related by Aelius Lampridius in his Life confirms this observation For being born with such a coif he afterwards came to the soveraign dignity of the Empire in the management whereof all things succeeded according to his wishes Nay it hath been generally believ'd that good fortune was so constant an attendant of this Coif that all those who were desirous to compass their affairs carry'd it about them especially Advocates who made use thereof to gain reputation in their publick pleadings being to that end very careful to buy them of the Midwives who knowing the excellency thereof sold them at a very dear rate after they had surreptitiously got them away from the children they had received into the World For those who have made it their business to enquire more strictly into this observation maintain that he who brings this natural coif with him into the world is to expect all manner of good fortune even so far as to be invulnerable provided he be careful to have it always about him or what contributes more to that effect to eat it as is over-superstitiously done by some But the contrary will happen to the Child if he be robb'd of that precious exuvium or coat or it be secretly taken from him to be given to another who by that translation thereof will receive the whole benefit of it The Second said That though the foresaid perswasion sufficiently destroy'd it self there being no connexion or correspondence between the accidents of humane life and that shirt which sometimes comes over the whole Body of the Child commonly falls not much below the Shoulders and many times does only cover the Face like a Mask yet have many been of Opinion that it contributed much to happines and the advantage of good fortune insomuch that Saint John Chrysostome in several of his Homilies speaks against those of his time who made use thereof to gain esteem which a Clergy-man named Praetus being desirous to acquire by the means of such a Coif bought of a Midwife he was very highly censur'd as Balsamon affirms in his Commentaries upon the Canons of the Apostles And Paulus Jovius an Author of great repute observes on the Nativity of Ferdinand Daval that the Coif he brought with him from his Mothers Womb contributed much to his being happy and belov'd of all From all which we may make this inference that there is nothing so extravagant but may meet with Favourers and Abettors For I may lay it down for certain that this Opinion hath no other ground than what it hath found in the weak Brains of those Midwives who having nothing in them but the name have insensibly scatter'd these errours
into the Minds of the vulgar with whom the wisest being oblig'd to comply in matter of Language it comes to pass at last that what was before but a common saying finds a degree of assent among the most considerate Nay what is not any longer to be endur'd they think it not enough to maintain this groundless perswasion but there are some so ridiculous as to derive a new kind of Divination from it which they call Amniomantia whereby they promise to foretel what-ever happiness or unhappiness should befall a Child newly born by the colour of that Membrane whereof they affirm that the redness signifies good success and that the blackness or blewness of it denotes the contrary To which they add another kind of Divination call'd Omphalomantia which teaches them to judge by the knots of the string whereby the Child is fasten'd to the After-burthen how many Children more the Mother shall have who according to their judgement will be Males if those intersections be of a colour inclining to black and Females if they be white which Observations are not only impertinent but also impious and superstitious The Third said That the common perswasion of the happiness attending Children born with these Coifs is well-grounded provided that it be taken in the sense wherein the Physicians who in all probability are more likely to be the Authors of it than those simple Women who receiv'd it from them would have it to be understood to wit that those who thus born cover'd with that fortunate Membrane in regard they are not put to so much trouble nor suffer so great violence in the passage by reason of its being open and easie come forth cloath'd out of their Mothers Wombs without being oblig'd to leave behind them the Membranes wherein they had been enclos'd in the Matrix whereas most other Children are forc'd to quit them at their coming into the World by reason of the Obstructions they meet with in their passage through those narrow streights which consequently is so much the more painful and laborious to them than it is to such as are coifed who are not to be imagin'd ever the more happy as to the remainder of their lives whereof the good or bad conduct are the true Causes of their happiness or unhappiness and not that Coif which can neither produce nor signifie them The Fourth said That those Children who are born thus coifed are not only more happy in their Birth but they are also such in all the actions of their lives as being commonly more peaceable and of a more quiet Constitution than such as leave that Membrane within their former lodgings who are accordingly more turbulent and restless and for that reason have not those insinuations whereby the former are recommended For in these the moderation of their manners and demeanour consequent to that of their humours gaining the hearts of all those with whom they converse raises them into the general esteem of all and so facilitates their accession to Honours and Employments it being certain that there may be some judgment made of the course of Life a Man is likely to take by the deportment of his Child-hood so is it no hard matter to give a ghess at the same by that of the Infant when he makes his first sally out of his Mothers Womb which is one of the most remarkable transactions of his Life Whence it may be inferr'd that that first coming abroad being free from the trouble and agitation whereof all others are sensible and which makes them forget their Vesture which is left behind by the way they ought accordingly to be dispenc'd from the misfortunes incident to others and enjoy a particular happiness The Fifth said That the most restless and most turbulent persons are commonly the most happy in this world whereas those who endeavour to walk according to the strict rules of Modesty and Reservedness do not carry on their business so well as the former do who confidently attempt any thing and imagine themselves the favourites of Fortune And thence it is that she on the other side is so assistant to them that though it be granted the Children born cloth'd are more meek and moderate than those who come into the World after the common rate yet would the clean contrary to what is pretended follow from it For instead of being cherish'd by Fortune it is seldom that she smiles on them but is much more kind to those stirring and tumultuary Spirits who many times obtain greater favours of her than they durst hope for had they demean'd themselves towards her with less earnestness and importunity The Sixth said That if every Man be the Artizan of his own Fortune those who are of the best Constitution and strongest Temper ought to be more happy than others whose irregularity of humors does manifestly cause that of their Actions and Fortunes Now the Children born with Cawls and Coifs about them seem to be less vigorous and of a weaker disposition than those who come into the World without any inasmuch as the latter being more earnest and violent are no sooner sensible of the time of their Deliverance but they courageously break through the Chains whereby they are detain'd the Membranes whereby they are encompass'd which those others having neither the Strength nor Courage to do it gives a great presumption that they will express but little upon other more pressing occasions and consequently they will content themselves with the mediocrity of their Conditions and not aspire to any thing extraordinary CONFERENCE CCXXXVII Of Antiperistasis SO great is the Indulgence of Nature that she thought it not enough to bestow Being and Existence on the things she hath produc'd but she hath also imprinted in them a strong Inclination to preserve it by fortifying them against the assaults of their Contraries the presence whereof sets them on such an edge that they become so much the more active And this is not only confirm'd in Animate Beings such as are Plants and Animals which vigorously oppose what-ever is hurtful to them by so powerful a Vertue that Men have been forc'd to find out a particular name for it to wit Antipathy but also in other Inanimate Bodies which generously stand upon the defensive when they are set upon by External Agents whose contrary qualities coming to engage against them they redouble their Forces and rally all together as it were into a Body the better to receive the Charge This is that which the Philosophers call Antiperistasis which is a vigorous resistance of the Subject caus'd by the contrariety of an Agent which encompasses it of all sides purposely to destroy or corrupt it It will be to no purpose to enter into any Dispute concerning the Existence of that which we call Antiperistasis but we shall lay it down for granted though it be contested by Cardan and some other Philosophers who maintain that Water Air and the other Subterraneous Bodies are not actually colder at